


Group B, meet Group A

by Akage



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Awkward Crush, Awkward First Times, Eventual Relationships, F/M, Gladers, Love, Protective Minho, Sassy Minho, Slow Build, Some Humor, Survival, The Maze Runner Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-23
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2018-04-27 08:32:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 94,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5041336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akage/pseuds/Akage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A twist on the maze runner.<br/>Group A and B escaped the maze and survived to talk about it but what if instead of phase 2 being the scorch trials WICKED put group A and B together!<br/>Wiping only part of their memories, they put the strongest of both groups together, into another Glade, a Glade with more monsters and a bigger maze with a whole different code to crack.<br/>With their memories of the last Glade still intact now the teenagers have to work together to figure out this new maze and its differences. Getting through the new variables is going to be just as tough as getting out of there alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome back to your new life

A whirring sound, slowly growing in volume as I opened my eyes. Panic struck me instantly when I noticed the familiar wired walls of the box elevator, the familiar thing pulling me up inside of it, making me feel sick and light headed. The white tube lights slowly appeared and disappeared as it slowly went up. Claustrophobia choked me like a pair of ghostly hands gripping my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut and move backwards, hitting something. I thought it was maybe another container when I heard a cough from who I had bumped in to. My eyes adjusted from the lights and blindness of my panic and I turn to see a familiar face. It was Aris.

"Aris" I squeal and I cling to him for dear life.

"Lexi?" He gasps and clings right back when I hear what sounds like movement behind me. We pull apart, me on my knees and I turn to see at least 6 more people crammed into the small space.  
People I didn't recognise, others I did.

"Harriet, Sonya!" I call as I notice my best friends hugging. Along with 4 guys, all sat together, A Korean guy slapping the two closest to him on their shoulders and giving a nod to the dark-skinned guy opposite him.

"Where's Teresa?" One of the guys say as me and my friends share looks.

"And Chuck?" The blonde man asks.  
The man who spoke up about a woman I didn't recognise the name of looked round in a panic

"Why- why are we here?" he asks angrily, pushing himself to stand, making more room and I slowly pull away from Aris.  
The other men stand up, the elevator we're in is plenty high enough for them to do so.

"Where's Rachel?" Aris asks no one in particular

"Where are all the others, and who are you?" Harriet asks the strange men who the three seem to be breaking down with anger and worry while the other, the Korean had just looked at the walls around him with a knowing expression.

"Why the hell are we back here, we beat the shucking maze, we beat it!" The dark haired guy said who spoke first of a woman.

"You beat a maze?" Sonya asks curiously looking at us all as we all share looks

"Yeah," the dark skinned man says looking at her with questioning eyes

"Wait, did you, did you beat a maze too?" He asks us all and I nod

"Oh great," the blond boy says, parking his butt on a big case of tinned food and putting his head in his hands

"I thought it would be over" Aris mutters and I look at him, seeing the despair in his eyes

"So you guys have been here before too?" I ask the strangers

"It's been years since I've sat in this thing" the blonde mutters, his hands still holding his head

"Why would they put us in here again?" The dark skinned man asks annoyed

"And with more girls?" Korean asks and it's silent for a minute until a red light shines down on us all and I look up to see the red lights of the top coming to a close, a sight I never thought I'd see again. At least I wasn't alone this time like I was before and actually had memories.  
The cage halted to a stop, shaking for a second before a burst of light came through blinding us all momentarily.  
The Korean didn't miss a beat and jumped, pushing open the cage, the two doors spring open with a loud creak.

He jumps out first, gripping the concrete floor above and pulling himself up with ease making me think he was the leader of their group.He looks around before putting his attention back to the box

"Minho, what do you see?" Blonde asks him  
Minho's face looks crushed and he shakes his head before putting his hand down for his friends to grab  
Blonde grabs his hand and is hauled up with ease and me and Aris stand up, my stomach churning from the ride up here but I force myself to keep whatever wants to come out, in.  
Blonde looks just as disappointed when he looks back down at us all

"What?" the dark haired boy asks as he rolls up the sleeves of his shirt

"Nothing, just ... come on" Blonde says holding his hand out for him and I notice the Korean, Minho kneel, holding his hand out towards Harriet and Sonya. Sonya stands up and takes his hand reluctantly and is hauled up.  
I nudge Aris and nod my head towards the food and barrels of water and materials, ruck sacks of clothes and other assortments, the usual supplies, except there was more than usual, this must be the starting gear, I've never been one of the first into a maze, I remember Harriet and Sonya were some of the first up the Glade, saying they came up in a big group, like this, this must be the same thing, when else have more than one person come up in a box together.

When everyone else is out of the box, leaving just me and Aris I roll up my sleeves and look at the supplies

"We're gonna need these," I say looking up to the hand extended to me. The guy who's hand is extended leans forward so I can see the face to go with the hand to pull me up and I notice it's the Korean. He looks around and smirks for a second before muttering "Good that, Pass em up"

Me and Aris start passing things up to our new Gladers for our new home. I honestly didn't want to get out of the box because I knew when I did it would hit me that I'm back, in the Glade and I wasn't ready for it so instead I busied myself in the elevator, trying not to think.  
It was weird, I loathed the creators, WICKED, wanted to rip their heads from their bodies but I wasn't scared, not as scared as I was when I first entered, nothing but a number of girls peering down at me and no memories. This time, I had some memories, not of life before all the maze but memories none the less and we now had guys with us which was a relief, there was a chance of survival and now we knew what we were up against. I just hoped I had the strength to do it all over again

With nothing left but the big containers with water me and Aris grab it, having to both haul up just one, We struggle to balance it between us and Minho jumps down  
Aris nods and we push up with all our strength and hand it to the guys above us.  
I take a breath and look at Minho who's lifting a container, barely a sweat. With determination etched into his features, he hauls the thing over the top and into the Glade and the men laugh.

"Show off" I mutter and he looks at me and gives another half smile before he jumps out easily.  
Harriet yanks Aris up as Korean hauls me up. He lets me go as soon as my feet hit the floor of the glade and I nod my thanks and look around.  
Blondie was right, nothing. It looked empty compared to what we had in our Glade.  
There was animals dotted around all over the huge expanse of the place, trees covering practically every wall like an outline, another corner had a huge bunch of trees which we had in our other Glade and another random patch of trees less close together, along with the shower heads that stuck out of the ground and a few toilets, and a well in the far side but that was it.

It was quiet as we all stood there, looking upon the Glade now we were all out.  
I wanted to fall on my knees and scream, cry until I couldn't cry anymore. 3 years of hard work and fighting to just be put here again just with different people, why? I kept the screams and tears back, not wanting to show weakness in front of my best friends and these strangers. Everyone looked a mass of emotions as I peered at everyone, the situation severely sinking in now we stood there in silence, taking in the view of the imprisoning walls that towered tall above us all. I had to be strong and keep up a front for my friends but right now I just wanted to find a corner to sit in and cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, hope you like the first little opener chapter.  
> I've read a few Maze runner fics but haven't found one with the guys and girls being put together so thought I'd write one for the hell of it.  
> They follow the books to some extent thought I have put my own twist on things, added new enemies and tests (variables) It's also going to be a Minho/oc story though I'm only 3 chapters in and I don't know where I'm even going with this. Leave me some comments about what you think and what you'd like to read and I'll see about making it happen.


	2. Chapter 2

"What now?" the blonde guy asks, breaking the long silence as we all stood near the box and supplies

"You're in charge shuck-face," Minho says, nudging his friend with a sense of friendly sarcasm to lighten the dull mood though the blonde boy didn't seem like smiling.

"Wish Alby was here," the dark skinned man said as he looked around

"We know what to do," Harriet says, stepping forward, showing her leadership.

"We run the maze, crack the code and get the hell out of here!"

"Good that!" Korean says shielding his eyes from the sun.

Names were exchanged as we sat around the fire that Thomas and Newt had made while Sonya and Frypan cooked up dinner over it. It was quiet around the fire as we all settled in for our first meal at the new Glade.

"I don't remember anything after running through that door in the maze," Aris says looking down at his vegetable soup and crackers.

"Neither do I, I don't think any of us do," I say looking up at Harriet and Sonya, noticing all eyes were on me and Aris as we spoke though Aris didn't seem to notice, he seemed depressed, as did that Thomas guy.

"Rachel, I, I don't remember anything, one second she's there, standing right next to me then I'm waking up in that damn box and she's gone" Aris mumbles

"Hey listen to me stick, we will find out what happened and get Rachel back, you never know, next month she might pop up in that box over there," I say and I notice Thomas look at the box then to me.  
Aris shrugs and I sigh, hating to see him depressed. I didn't really know the guy that well, the only reason I jumped on him when I saw him was because he was a face I recognised and I was scared. He was only there a week before we bust out of the maze.

"The others, I wonder where they are?" Sonya says

"Probably down there, with WICKED" Newt shrugs thoughtfully and we all share looks, scared for our friends.

  
Hammocks were put up as there was one for each of us, no more, no less.We all slept close together, just a tree apart, some hammocks sharing a tree though neither of us could sleep. Hearing the walls changing and the noises of the Grievers. Didn't help that we were all used to sleeping inside a building.  
Finally, I fall to sleep to be woken up early morning by Harriet and she goes on to wake Aris. I sit up in my hammock and rub the sleep from my eyes and yawn.I look around to see Thomas, Newt, Frypan and Minho already up, standing together to the side, wiping their faces with a cloth and some of the water they must have gotten from the well.  
I climb out of my bed and walk over to Harriet who's now stood at a bag of clothing, rummaging through it.

"So, what's the plan?" I ask her stood next to Sonya

"The guys want to go running, start mapping out as soon as possible and Aris and Frypan are gonna start organising this place," she says and pushes a clean thin vest top into my hands with a smile that could only mean one thing. We're all going running. I smile at my two running buddies.  
The male runners walked over from the box with a bag in hand. We hadn't sorted everything out yet and there was still a few bags lying around outside of the elevator which Frypan and Aris was going to sort through while we all ran.  
Minho put the bag down in front of us and kneeled over it, unzipping the backpack and pulling out running trainers.

"Size 6?" Minho holds them up, waving them around and Sonya takes the familiar looking trainers. "Least we get new ones," She says with a smile and starts putting them on.

"Who the hells only a 4?" Minho asks and I snatch them and he laughs  
"You two have to put your feet together," He says laughing, looking from me to Thomas and Thomas rolls his eyes with a smile

"Could fit two of yours in his and have room to spare" Minho laughs and now I'm rolling my eyes.  
With our shoes on, we all stood in front of the doorway in the wall waiting for it to open.  
Minho hits Thomas' shoulder with the back of his hand lightly catching all of our attention

"Alright Thomas, you're with me" Thomas nods

"So who wants to run with me bounds as these shanks are abandoning me," Newt asks with a glare to his friends  
Sonya shrugs "I will" He nods and me and Harriet share a smile and the door opens, a wind hitting us in the face as the birds fly up into the sky at the shift in the air and we all head inside the maze, splitting off into our groups.  
Me and Harriet were used to the running being runners in the last maze. I was grateful to be in shape because of it and we mapped out quite a large area that day. We were second back after Sonya and Newt and a few minutes before the doors were set to close the guys return, us 4 waiting for them.

"Cutting that a bit close aren't you?" Harriet asks as they jog up to us.  
Minho smiles wide and Thomas just looks at us all

"We're good runners" Minho says, showing me another part of his personality, so he's big-headed huh

"Or stupid!" Harriet says and Minho raises a brow putting his hand on his hip and huffs a smile before narrowing his eyes at her.

"So what did you find?" I ask before they can start butting heads

"Nothing but walls, it's different though, shorter halls, more twists and turns," Minho says then shakes his head and looks down, taking in a big breathe

"It's gonna take a while," Newt says, the disappointment and sorrow showing clearly on his face showing we all saw the same things, a bigger, more complex maze

"We're gonna need more runners," Thomas says and I share a look with Harriet.

Frypan and Aris were sat around the burning fire when we walked over to them. Frypan cooking while Aris was writing on a piece of paper.

"What are you doing?" Newt asks, sitting down beside him, knees bent up.

"Writing a list of supplies we need, want to add to it?" he asks looking up at us all

"Deodorant for this slinthead," Minho says, nudging Thomas with a smile

"A gag for Minho" Thomas says back, nudging Minho back and they share a smile

"Maybe rings so you can both get married too" Harriet jokes

"I ain't gay," Minho says seriously with a finger pointed at Harriet and we laugh

"Never said you were" she mutters then Aris writes down deodorant

"He might be though" Minho continues to joke as he looks at Thomas. Thomas just shakes his head smiling and I realise then that I'm grateful for these new guys being here, they were fun.

"That's a long list" I state when it's done

"They owe us a lot more than what's on this list," Harriet says sternly as Aris passes her the list and starts helping Frypan with the food

After showering with Sonya and Harriet we head back over to the sleeping area where our hammocks were and the still lit fire close by.  
Sonya was plaiting her hair on the walk back as I was scrunching my waist long brown hair with the towel to try and dry it when we saw Minho, Newt and Thomas sitting around the fire in a discussion so we headed over to them.  
Thomas and Newt smile at us as we sit down as we listen to what Minho's going on about

"So metaphorically speaking we could be out of here within a year!" He looks up, an excited smile on his face, he doesn't even seem to pay attention to us 3 joining them as he looks at his friends

"We still need to build though Minho!"Newt says then looks towards the walls, the doors now closed tight for the night

"Nothings saying this time around those Grievers aren't going to come out to say hello again, we need to build a stronger building, more weapons, we have to bloody prepare for this" Newt finishes

"Were prepared this time, we know what's coming so there's a chance, right!?" Thomas says looking at all of us

"Yeah, so you really think we can be out of here within a year?" Harriet asks Minho

"As long as those shuck faces keep sending greenies up" He nods and Sonya smiles at me and Harriet. I hope he's right.

"No rest for the Wicked" Sonya mutters dryly as we all head for the doors the next morning

"You mean no rest for the Gladers while Wicked get to have tea party's!" Newt says

"Funny" Minho says with a sarcastic smile

"Alright, let's switch this round, who with who?" Thomas asks as we reach the closed doors

"What now?" Sonya asks confused

"Oh, we decided to swap, see who we can work best with," Minho says pulling on his harness

"Our teams are fine," I say not seeing the point in this

"S'up, you don't trust us?" Minho asks me and I look at him

"Do you trust me?" I ask

"Touché," he says with the tilt of his head and I smirk

"That's a part of why we're doing this, to build trust, if we're going to be living together we need to trust and get to know each other, the only way we're doing that is by running together," Newt says and me and Sonya share a smile

"You think things through more than me," Harriet says annoyed and Newt doesn't exactly know how to take that comment

"I don't know if I like that but you're right, so boys, how are we doing this?" She asks leaving this one up to them

"We swap partners weekly, we planned this last night while you girls were doing your nails-" We look at each other, eyebrows raised at Minho's comment about us but he doesn't stop talking, giving us no room to comment

"We haven't exactly got a plan or anything figured exactly" Minho says looking to Thomas "so we can just swap until we find who we get on with most and know that we can all play along nicely then me and Thomas will start to run solo so we can cover more sections of this place, at least until more runners pop up" Minho says and we all just look at him, trying to wrap our heads around it all.

"Ok then," Minho says clapping his hands with a smile

"Who wants to run with me?" The big-headed Korean asks with a smile and we all just stare at him "Don't all shout out at once" he says quieter and I shake my head and step forward

"Let's get this over with" I state sounding bitter though I had to admit, I liked Minho, I defiantly wouldn't die of boredom with him around.


	3. Chapter 3

It didn't take me long running with Minho to see how serious he takes running the maze. He was focused, didn't speak much and had a superb memory, I defiantly looked up to him for this professional side to him.  
He also had a lot more stamina than me though I tried my best to keep up. Come dinner I slide down the wall and land ungracefully on my arse and sigh loudly in relief. Minho turns to look at me with a raised brow and smiles as he reaches round his harness for the food and jar of water.

"Going too fast for you there girly?" He asks walking over to me

"It's Lexi and no I'm fine," I say sternly and he scoffs a laugh, clearly seeing straight through me and he sits next to me, keeping a foots distance and he hands me the drink which I take gratefully and have a long sip before passing it back to him.

"You're good at this" I state and he looks at me, passing me a sandwich

"Of course!" he states and I smile

"Heard you want to rush this and get out of here as soon as you can," I say and he just looks at me waiting for me to say more

"You not want to slow down, have a rest?" I ask him curiously and he scoffs

"Why would I do that? I gotta keep going, just like I did in the last maze, even when we thought there was no way out I kept running, no point in sticking around when this time we know what we're doing" I nod at his answer, I didn't blame him for wanting to rush things but he's been a runner longer than me

"You don't even want one day off?" I ask with a smile and he returns it

"Not a chance slint-head, this time I'm getting us all out of here!" He says, determination in his voice and I smile.  
Somehow, looking at his face I believed him.

The week dragged on, everyday me and Minho ran into the maze, searching the same section, mapping out the wall changes determined to map out as much as we could. Each day I'd look forward to spending the day with the runner, enjoying our dinner breaks chatting about the place and just teasing each other to put smiles on our faces but the week had been mapped in our section and tomorrow I was going to be running with Thomas in another section.

  
Sat around the fire Minho sat next to me for the first time instead of between Thomas and Newt and I noticed Sonya and Newt had also been sitting together a lot more. We talked about what work needed to be done on the place and what supplies we needed. By then I was always only half listening in to the conversations anyway. The constant running for hours a day kicked my energy levels right down and come 7 I wanted to crash.

Minho nudged my shoulder and I realised my head was dropping slightly and I was ready to fall asleep right there sat around the fire.

"Gonna set your hair on fire slint-head" he mutters and I roll my eyes and sit up straight

"Go to bed!" He orders and Harriet smiles at me and I sigh. I didn't like being the first to call it a night, guess you could say I was weird like that and a little stubborn

"I'm fine!" I say and Minho laughs at me

"And I'm deeply in love with Newt over there," Minho says sarcastically and Newt chuckles

"Feelings mutual shank" Newt winks and Minho winks back and I find myself laughing

"Feeling a little left out here guys," Thomas says for Newt to throw an arm over his shoulder

"We love you too Tommy"

Minho winks at Thomas in a sexual way and Thomas laughs

"I'm gonna throw up, thought girls were meant to be the ones that show feelings and shit?" Harriet says with a laugh

"Nothing wrong with a little love, ain't that right fellas," Newt says

"Yeah, if you wanna grow a pair of tits," Minho says and Harriet laughs again

"Knew you guys were sexist," she says

"Oh, and you're not?" Aris says speaking up

"Being in a glade full of girls, of course we are" Sonya answers for him and Newt snorts

"And you wonder why we are," He says and they all start arguing playfully about who was the most sexists but I just zone out again

"Right come on, we're going to bed," Minho says suddenly, pulling me from my zoning out moment when I was struggling to keep my eyes open, never mind listen in to the conversation/argument. I didn't even know what sex was winning at the moment but I knew Sonya and Harriet were damn good at arguments and winning.  
I'm gently pulled up to my aching feet by a strong grip on my forearm and I whine at being moved as the arguments carry on around us

"We're going to bed, not that anyone asked," Minho says pulling me so I turn my back on everyone.  
We both look back, expecting calls of goodnight but all I heard was Sonya yell "That's the most sexist thing I have ever heard!" and I look at Frypan who's laughing so hard it's actually a silent laugh, shaking his body as he held his stomach causing me to smile at the sight

"We're going to go and make mini Minho's so don't disturb us, ok!" Minho says but still they're all just laughing and arguing and Minho pulls a face, he clearly hates to be ignored and I only click what was said as I'm getting pulled towards the hammocks  
I'm too tired for Minho's words to fully make sense and instead, I have to run it through my brain a few times. Mini Minho's, oh dear lord! what was he 12? He plops me on to my hammock so I'm sitting on it and he's smiling down at me like he's amused

"Man you really are tired," He says and I look at him with a raised brow

"What?" he asks

"Seriously?" I ask questionably at what he told the guys and he shrugs

"Can't believe they didn't even pick up on it, your friends really enjoy arguing" he states and I smile

"Yeah they're good at it too" I admit proudly and he smiles and goes over to his hammock 2 trees to my left and I pull my shoes off and lie back straight away and I sigh at finally relaxing fully in my own hammock. It wasn't as good as my old bed back in the old glade I had in the homestead but it was doing just fine for now.

"Guess we'll have to make mini me's another time, you wouldn't last 2 minutes" I hear Minho say as I was slowly slipping into sleep and I hum in amusement and smile

"Like you could last any longer" I hit back and I can imagine the confident smirk on his handsome face before I picture what the process of making baby Minho's actually was and I was glad Minho wasn't close enough to see my face as it flushed red as I imagined Minho climbing into my hammock and between my legs, holy shit that was hot!  
Minho laughs pulling my thoughts away thankfully and I do the same, shaking my head of all this nonsense, I was too damn tired to think straight anyway. I knew it was all just playful banter, I knew he wasn't serious and was just trying to pull a reaction from the others "Try not to miss me too much tomorrow" He says softly, sounding ready for sleep himself

"You wish," I say sleepily and he smirks

"You wish I wish, anyway good night, loser," he says and I smile and fall into a dreamless sleep.

My week went smoothly running with Thomas, I liked him, honestly, I liked everyone I was in here with, all the guys seemed friendly, kind and they could all take a joke. Thomas was easy to talk to and we soon formed a bond but I had a feeling whoever this guy talked to he could easily form a bond with, he's the type everyone got pulled towards, he just had that kind of thing about him but that week went by fast and before I knew it I was now running with Newt.

"Alright Lexi, try not to hold me back," Newt says though there was kindness in his voice and he smiles at me as we head towards the doors about to open for our first run together  
"Says the one with a limp" Minho teases and Newt pushes him and I smile as Minho and Sonya are walking with us.

"Last one back's washing the dishes" Minho shouts as the doors start to open and with a flash of his smile he runs in through the still opening doors, Sonya close behind and me and Newt share a smile before we head inside, the guys going left, me and Newt going right.

It's now our fifth day running together and I got on just as great with Newt, I considered him a good friend, always there to brighten my day a little. I know that picking running partners was going to be difficult as we all got on. When we returned everyone was sat around the fire when we saw the back of a head that wasn't there when we left the Glade this morning. Of course we knew we had been here a month now, we had gotten back earlier than we would have otherwise knowing someone is going to be sent up. We all knew it would be a girl as currently, the guys outnumbered the girls and I recognised who it was and took off jogging again, as much as it killed me, Newt slowly limping behind.

"Hannah," I say coming to a halt just a few feet away and she gets up, already seeing me coming and we meet in the middle and hug.  
We pull away and I smile at my old friend. Her shoulder-length brown hair up in a bobble, a straight cut fringe framing her small yet pretty face. Her face was clean, clothes clean. She seemed fine but I looked her up and down anyway worried for the safety of my friend.

"How are you, Lexi?" She asks with a smile

"Good, well, as good as I can be, what about you, do you remember where you've been the past month?" I ask noticing Harriet and Thomas already sat around the fire, just Minho and Sonya were left to return from the maze. Trust Minho to not want to leave early to see the greenie arrive, I bet Sonya's pissed at Minho's attitude towards running.  
Hannah sighs pulling a sad face and shakes her head

"No, I just remember we escaped, we walked down a hallway, opened a door and then suddenly I'm waking up in the lift" I pull a face and hear Newt approach and step back so they could meet

"Hey" I hear Newt say in his usual friendly way slightly out of breath

"That's Newt," I say not elaborating. assuming Frypan and Aris filled her in when she arrived

"Newt that's Hannah, leader of the Track-hoes" I state and Newt nods, putting out his hand and they shake

"We'll be working together then at some point, was a track hoe myself in the last glade" he says and Hannah questions him on this and Newt fills her in that we need all the runners we can get for now and that he used to be a runner in his last glade first before he acquired his limp. Hannah didn't question it but it left me curious, how did he get that limp and why hadn't I asked yet?

Just then I see Minho and Sonya in the distance coming towards us and Hannah smiles at the sight of Sonya. When she's close enough to make out her friend Sonya starts running while Minho just walks. Sonya asks the same questions I just did and then she introduces her to Minho and we all sit around the fire to eat dinner.  
Newt nudges me as I finish up my food and he has a smile on his face. I go to question him when he nods his head at Minho and calls the runner.  
Minho looks up at Newt with raised brows at the sudden call of his name.

"Looks like you're doing the dishes!" I burst into laughter, Newt joining in as Minho's face drops in realisation that he lost his own game and he sighs, lowering his bowl with an annoyed scowl. It was cute.


	4. Chapter 4

Time passed in a blur, or atleast it felt like a blur as everyday seemed to mould into one with every single day being the same thing. Minho and Thomas had started running on their own to cover more of the maze as planned but the day before that started Harriet called a gathering with all the runners. Mentioning there are 8 sections in the maze and only 6 runners so she called a vote on us all running separately to cover more of the maze. The guys preferred the thought of us going in pairs because of the dangers of Grievers but in the end they agreed to let us all run solo with the fact that we have survived doing it before so I was back to running on my own, although I did miss the company.

  
Supplies kept coming up the box, Hannah got a small garden going and Aris, with a lot of help from Frypan had finished building the outside food hut for Frypan to store all his food with a table to serve everyone and had began building the homestead with the slowly growing supplies WCKD would send up but with just a few people here it was slow going for two months.

  
The second person to come up the box was some guy called Winston the guys were friends with from the last Glade they were in. Frypan was grateful for the slicer meaning we could finally start eating meat instead of the tins that were starting to thin out.

With Winston arriving Frypan mentioned we hadn't had a single party since we all came up here and that we should so the whole day was spent preparing for it. Frypan getting Winston to get to work so we could have bacon to celebrate his arrival with and Newt got to work making a special drink which Minho warned everyone to stay away from but when the fire was lit and the smell of bacon was wafting through the glade that night I took a jar from a smiling Newt and we toasted as he walked off, plenty more jars in his hands as he walked around passing them out.  
It burnt my throat as it went down and I coughed and pulled a face.

"Told ya" Minho says, plopping down heavily besides me, his knees bent and spread wide, his elbows leaning on each one as he held a jar between his hands and I roll my eyes at the fact he has one.

"What is it, alcohol?" I ask and he shrugs

"If it's anything like what Gally used to make us then yeah, guessing it's thanks to Gally Newt knows how to make this stuff" he says then takes a swig himself, wincing only a little as it went down

"Taste like klunk" he mutters and I chuckle and take another sip and watch the fire raging on, feeling the heat on my face.  
We spent most of the night talking to each other, learning things about our old Glades and how different we did things to how we are now before Minho took the now empty jar from my hands saying it's getting late and we have to run tomorrow. He stood up easily and tossed my jar before downing the rest of his, shaking his head at the after taste and I smile as he then lobs his jar and holds a hand out for me.

"Off to make mini Minho's?" I ask with a raised brow jokingly and Minho smirks as he pulls me up lightly yet firmly giving me a glimpse of the strength in those arms.

"The world ain't ready for them yet" he says and I laugh as we head for the hammocks, saying a sarcastic good night and falling to sleep.

 

We didn't have a map room so to speak, at the moment after runs we all just sat by the small body of water the Glade had with our papers and pencils and at night we would put them in the chest that's behind the food hut hidden away, not that everyone didn't know where it was anyway but I guess the guys liked the idea of it being hidden away from others. When I got to the lake after the day's run only Minho and Thomas were there and I sat down, practically collapsing, laying on my back and putting my arm over my face to block out the light from the artificial sun and heave a breath.

"Your head feeling any better?" I hear Minho ask knowing full well there was a smirk on his face and I smile

"Yeah, now I just feel sick" I mutter truthfully "I'm never drinking that crap again" I say still not looking at anyone or anything

"That's what they all say" I hear Minho say and I smile under my arm when I hear fast footsteps approaching. I pull myself up to see Newt running towards us. He stops only a few feet from us and heaves in deep breathes as he slowly and carefully drops to the floor taking his weight from his legs and looks at us all, a look I didn't know.

"I found something!" We all look at him and I realise he looks worried and my stomach tightened and not from the previous nights alcohol consumption. Of course Newt made us wait until Harriet and Sonya were back before he could tell us what he found, Minho wasn't happy and clearly an impatient guy when it came to news of the maze, or maybe he was just impatient in general, again the quirks of not knowing these guys that long.

"What?" Sonya asks as she walks over to us all just waiting for her, her cheeks flushed red from a days run and her hair messy in her side braid. We all look at Newt eagerly and he sighs and looks around at everyone.

"A number?" Thomas asks his friend after a moment of silence as we thought about what Newt just said. Newt nodded and Thomas and Minho shared a look.

"Where, what number?" Minho asks

"Right at the end of my run when I hit the last dead end, right there on the wall was this big red circle thing, I went over to it and touched it and it kinda, sprang to life, showing a big red number on it, the number 7" Newt says confused and as I look around everyone is just as confused as he is.

"Take us there, tomorrow!" Minho says. It wasn't a question though Newt nods anyway.

"Is that possible, with the walls changing?" I ask and Newt takes out a sheet of paper from his harness that was on the floor besides him and he looks the paper over, the sketch of the maze he ran today. "The end wall never moves, that's the end of the maze, or atleast as far as we know, I'm sure we can get there in another route" Newt suggests looking up

"Just go back 6 days" Harriet says and we all look at her and I click what she means straight away and it seems Minho does too. The mazes pattern repeats weekly. 

"Have we got that route mapped out?" Minho asks everyone and Sonya smiles

"Yeah, 6 days ago that sections was mapped out, by you right" Sonya asks Newt and his expression changes like a light bulb going of and he stands up and wonders towards the food hut where behind it lay the chest of lined out sections of the maze, the areas and days we had ran it. Newt returns a minute later, a hand full of papers in his hands with Aris and Frypan right besides him, Frypan a big pot in his hands with some oven gloves and Aris with a bunch of bowels. Frypan said bounds as we didn't show up for dinner he was bringing it to us. With Newts news about the number we completely forgot about food but smelling that casserole my stomach grumbled impatiently.

We ate surrounded by a mass of papers littering the grass finding out the piece we needed until Thomas waves it around, mouth full of food mumbling a

"Found et"

Thomas nearly dribbling the gravy sauce down his chin as he sputtered the words and Newt smiles shaking his head as he snatches the paper to peer at it before he looked up at us all and we knew we had our way mapped out for us tomorrow to find that wall.

I woke to the dull light of the early morning sun and winced and turned in my hammock to avoid the light though it was pointless, this concrete cell had no roof and I moan and pull the thin bed sheet over my head, it still didn't help. I hear a laugh before Minho's quiet soft voice reaches my ears

"You're not a morning person are ya" I sit up and find him easily enough, crouched over a jar of water and a wash cloth, pouring the water over it and smiling at me way too excitedly for this time of morning before rubbing his face with the wash cloth and I roll my eyes while he couldn't see and I swing my legs off the hammock and I realise Newt was also awake, stood at the food shack where we also had a corner for our running gear, close to the hidden chest. He's too busy getting everything ready for us all to even bid me a good morning

"That obvious" I say back just as quietly hoping not to wake everyone and I pull myself out of bed to walk over to the runner making it easier to talk, I also wanted to wash my face, it wasn't an excuse to talk to him, ok. He smiles passing me a cloth as he puts his down, ringing it out and trying to wipe his face dry with it.

"So what made you be a runner before?" He asks after I had scrubbed my face and I look at him. He seemed curious as he stood up from his kneeling position and put the lid back of the jar of water.

"Whos saying I was a runner?" I ask with a playful smile and he tilts his head at me like he's trying to read me "You run, you don't stink at it, you was a runner, right?" He asks and I stand up, ringing my towel again to pat my face dry and shrug

"I was for a little while when I first arrived. I got on great with Harriet and Sonya and they were runners, I didn't exactly like the idea of running, I had no idea if I was fit enough for it, I never remembered running before, not that anyone does I guess" I state and put the flannel on my shoulder as Newt walks over, giving me a friendly smile as he passes me my harness which I thank him for.

"So they made you a runner?" Minho asks and I nod "But if you hate it why did you run?" he adds and I chuckle lightly, being careful not to be loud

"I never said I hated it Minho" the man frowns before speaking again "But you said you was a runner for a while so I guess by that you mean you wasn't a runner the whole time you were in that other glade" He states and I nod. At least he listened.

"Yeah, I just realised I had a lot of knowledge about the human body and I was needed as a med-Jack when things started to get, well nasty, more stings in the day, Gladers fighting and well I preferred being a med-Jack, as selfish as it sounds" I state and Newt surprises me by speaking up

"It's not selfish, I was a bloody gardener for crying out loud, I'd rather dig up weeds that run that shucking thing, we did our fair share and yet here we are, looks like although we don't want to run the Glade leaves us no choice, were stepping up and doing what has to be done!" I smile at Newts words and nod at him.

"Yeah, no point in moping about it, we just gotta do it" I say and Newt smiles and Minho rolls his eyes at us both

"You know if you were second in command in that girl glade of yours I'd say you're his girl version" Minho states and Newt rolls his eyes and I give Minho a questioning look

"Minho reckons" Newt speaks up looking to me with amusement in his brown eyes "bounds as Aris came up to your group as Teresa came to ours people were sent up the same, Minho here thinks our Glades are like what scientists would see as worlds, different dimensions and we each have a ... copy, in opposite sex form" Newt shrugs

"I still think I'm right" Minho says and Newt snorts at his friend "I think it's bloody ridiculous but I'll humour you all the same"

"Thanks, pal" Minho says sarcastically as he pats his friend on the shoulder and leaves me and Newt standing there as he goes to wake Thomas up rudely by shaking the rope of his hammock and I smile, wondering if Minho was right then who would be the male version of me?

Before we knew it we had entered into the maze without a look back, determined to find that wall with the mysterious number written in red. Minho and Thomas didn't even question Newt on what he saw was actually real so without any questions of belief we followed behind Minho who lead the way, the piece of paper working as a map in his hands. Over half way there we took a small break to pass along the 4 jars of water between the 6 of us and we had a little rest. I leant against the wall knowing that if I sat down my feet would hate me for it once I got back up. The breather, break and drink was nice. I also enjoyed being out in the maze with everyone, I knew those walls were going to seem emptier on my run alone tomorrow after running with all the runners today. Minho made us continue after only 10 minutes of resting saying we were wasting daylight. Minho clearly had a knack at running mazes and making out maps as we got there with no troubles.

It was a long hallway and the first thing we all noticed was the faint red light at the end of it. We all shared sceptical looks before we starting making our way towards it. It was just a red circle, like a touch screen had been inserted into the wall. Minho stepped forward, hesitantly raising his arm, lifting his index finger towards the circle.


	5. Chapter 5

When Minho placed his finger on to the large circle it flickered to life with a low mechanical noise as it grew in size, a number appearing smack in the middle, large and bright red and moving slightly, like it was hovering around the screen lazily in the circle. The number read 6. Minho looked back at us all, his mouth open slightly, confused and then he stepped back, lowering his hand.

"Thought it was a 7?" Thomas asks confused

"It, was!" Newt says as we all just stare at the looming number, a lump forming in my throat. What did it mean?

We sat against the wall, calming our thumping hearts and resting our overused lungs, limbs and saw throats. Harriet passed around the food while Newt passed me some water. Minho was just stood there, hand under his chin staring at the wall, the red circle twirling slowly around the large number.

"Maybe it's counting down?" Minho suggests questionably, breaking the minutes of silence as we rested. We all looked at him and he just looked back at the wall.

"Counting down what?" Thomas asks

"I don't know do I, why do you think I asked " Minho says, turning around and I pass him the water with a stern look telling him with my eyes to sit his stupid ass down. He takes the water and sits opposite me, us girls on one side as the guys sat on the other side of the shallow length of the dead-ended pathway. I stare at the number after eating, watching as the number slowly faded out and it returned to just the round circle. Seems everyone else noticed the number fade away too as all eyes were on the mysterious red circle, it's red lights bouncing off the walls, making the thing look creepier than it actually should have been.

"We should come back tomorrow, or one of us anyway, see if goes down again?" Thomas suggests looking at us all and I see Harriet nodding in agreement with his idea.

"I'll do it" Minho says looking at the wall before he stands up and I cringe. I didn't want to get up just yet. He readjusts his harness and looks at us all

"You waiting for a griever or something?" he asks clearly wanting to hurry things along and I hear Sonya sigh from her position sat besides me. Newt steps forwards as he was already up and offers her his hand. Me and Harriet share a smile at the blush creeping on Sonya's face which she tries, and fails to hide. The run back was just as quiet as the run there, plus my lungs couldn't take talking even if I wanted to. Me and my partners in crime made our way to the well as soon we got back to the glade while the guys walked over to the lake. Once we had splashed ourselves with water and drank as much as we could we slowly made our way over to the guys at the small lake.

Newt had his bare feet in the pool of water when we got there as Thomas had his drenched t-shirt in his hands wiping at the sweat on his chest as Minho leant back on his hands, head tilted back with his eyes closed, his adam's apple glistening with sweat as he took nice calm breathes. I couldn't help but stare, noticing how the sweat made his running shirt stick to his body, Images of me straddling his thighs licking at his throat flickered in my head for a second, taking me by surprise. I blink and look away and notice Sonya was smiling at Newt as he returned it happily as she sat besides him, taking her running shoes off to join him. I sigh and sit down next to Thomas so I was opposite Minho and I lie back deciding it was safer for me to not have easy access of Minho in case I drooled. Why did guys have to show up and make me feel... 

"We gonna tell the others about what we found?" Sonya asks, her head turned to look at me, Harriet, Thomas and Minho sat on the grass behind them.

"You think it would worry them?" I ask "Are we worried?" Minho asks finally pulling his head up, his shoulders hunched as he looked at us all

"Can't pretend it isn't worrying" Thomas admits with the tilt of his head and a raised brow

"I think we should tell them anyway, were in this together, I don't know why we haven't told them already" I state

"Because we don't want to worry them" Newt says with a soft tone showing he cared a lot for his friends

"Well if that number is counting down then that means it's going to reach zero, if something is about to happen in 6 days we all need to be prepared for that" Harriet says and I agree with her and look over to the others. Frypan's for some reason tickling Hannah and I smile.

"Think it's time to build stick" Harriet says looking to me and I can't help but smile at the mention of an old friend.

I watch from my view point sat with Frypan the next day as Thomas and Minho enter through the doors as they open. They're going to find the number again while the rest of us sit here and discuss tactics and defences. A good idea I guess but I highly doubted something bad would happen once those numbers count down to zero, if they're even counting down.  
There were only 9 of us in the glade at the moment which means we aren't big enough in numbers to defend ourselves properly, no matter how much experience we have or the knowledge we know of this place and the grievers there's no surviving an attack in 5 days if their theory is right. That was worrying, although the theory was doubtful it also wasn't impossible and I didn't trust WICKED, the name speaks volumes enough.

  
I was listening to the conversation but I wasn't taking part. I didn't want them to hear what I had thought on the saw subject, instead I kept busy with my crafting of stick, my trusty longbow. She needed to be ready within 5 days with some arrows. I was now dedicating my time to this instead of running. Harriet knew of this but the guys didn't, I wasn't sure I was ready to tell them. We do need all the runners we can get.  
Newt sits besides me which gets him a few looks as Hannah's speaking about building some sort of fence to place on the doors when they open, good idea, if we could get that to work though was another thing with our crap supplies.

"Alby used one of those"  
I look at Newt, sadness in his eyes at just the mention of his old leader but it doesn't last long, he smiles and I return it.

"He was really good, I had watched him make a few arrows, want some help?"  
I smile and nod

"That would be a huge help, thank you"

"Ahh it's no problem" he winks and I roll my eyes as he looks through the wood I had gathered yesterday in advance of today spent making my weapon and we both silently get to work, listening to the conversation around us, joining in when we had something decent enough to say that could help.  
Finally the guys return a good half hour before shut down. They joined us, Minho shaking his head and Thomas looking disheartened as he looked at everyone

"5 .. it's er, it says 5"  
Minho and Thomas share a look and so do me and Harriet.

"So it is counting down?" Winston asks and Thomas nods

"It's got to be"

"But to what?" Newt asks. The question going unanswered.

Dinner was a quiet ordeal, everyone eating in a silence thick with apprehension but thankfully Sonya started a conversation about everyone's ideas from earlier about properly fortifying this place and chatter broke out easily after a minute. I took my wood and carving supplies and sat a few feet back. Not far away from everyone that I couldn't hear or see them but enough back to have my own space and to be able to concentrate on finishing this damn bow with enough light from the fire.  
Minho joined me after a long discussion between the Gladers, he listened to every suggestion and made a few of his own. It gave me hope that until we get out of here we will be protected a hell of a lot more than either of us was in our other glades. More chance of survival, of more of us getting out than last time.

He sits besides me, watching my hand movements and looking over my bow which was far from completed yet but I had the arrow that Newt had made me earlier, it wasn't the best but I couldn't wait to try it out.

"A bow" he says and I smirk

"Only just figured it out?" I ask the Korean and he smiles rolling his eyes

"You didn't exactly elaborate" he says and I look at him, his smile being infectious as usual and I smile with him before looking back to my longbow

"I kinda like the element of surprise, don't you?"  
He smirks and I don't know weather to be worried or not but he nods to the group and I look at everyone

"They all had some good ideas, what about you?" he asks me seriously

"My idea was the one Harriet mentioned" I admit not looking away from my hand movements.

"The training?" he asks and I nod

"Yeah, I don't think I should be the only one here with a bow, it's a long distance weapon, we have more chance at surviving using these than we do knives and spears" I say

"So you're gonna teach us how to use bows while Harriet's going to lead a fighting class?"

"Yep"  
He snorts and I look at him

"What?"

"Just, never thought I'd have any type of lessons from a girl"  
I laugh and nudge him lightly

"Is it degrading?" I ask

"Shameful, it's shameful" Again I laugh and me and Minho share a smile

"So when will 'stick' be ready?" he asks after a moment of comfortable silence

"Few days, why?"

"Cause I can't wait to see you use that thing" I smile and bite my lip

"Why stick anyway?" Minho questions about my nickname for my longbow

"Isn't it obvious, it's made out of wood, it's basically a large sanded stick and stick is also our word for shank, stick is my weapon and my friend"

"Oh, that's kinda un-original"  
I snort and nudge him again

"Well I like it"

"Simple minds" he shrugs throwing me a smile

"Careful Minho" I warn, hoping to sound a little dangerous although I hoped he could see the smile I was holding back  
His brows raise with amusement

"Remember I'm the one with the bow!" He snorts a laugh and stands up

"Where you going?" I ask watching him get up and stretch his arms, loosening his joints a little

"To get some clean clothes then to shower, why, wonna join me?" He raises his eyebrows suggestively and my natural reaction is to scoff in disgust although if I took him up on his offer would he allow me, would I even have the balls to go ahead with it, no, no I wouldn't. He's only joking anyway right? I didn't want him to be

"Get over yourself" I hit back and he chuckles lightly and places his hand on my shoulder as he steps behind me to get to the hammocks where he keeps his clothes in a bag nearby his bed and I look at his hand

"I know you want me!"

My eyes go wide and his hand lets go of my shoulder and I can feel my face heat up as I listen to him walk away. thank god it's dark and no one is looking at me, how embarrassing, how does he know, please be joking, I hope he's joking.


	6. Chapter 6

5 more days of Thomas and Minho running the same section of the maze to reach the back wall all lead to this moment.  
All of us was stood outside the entrance they ran through this morning waiting for their return, weapons in hand.  
It was silent between us, our weapons all at the ready. I had my bow in my left hand and an arrow in the right and I was mentally prepared for a Griever to come ambling down that stretch of maze at full speed towards us.

I was getting impatient when the guys finally appeared running around the corner in to our sights. A few sighs of relief were let out and we waited for them to cross the threshold of the door before we bombarded them with questions.  
Minho held his hands up to silence us all as he and Thomas got their breathing back to bearable  
"Nothing, just a big fat number zero on the wall, anything happen here?" Minho says

"Nothing? no changes, no monsters, so what was it counting down?" Aris asks

"Nothings happened here, not that we know of anyway" Sonya says and were all just as confused as we was the day Newt found that mystery number.

"It's got to mean something" Newt says

"Me and Thomas think it might show a different number tomorrow, maybe it's a code" Minho says

"For the door? it could be" Harriet admits and I think all our hopes go up at that

"So you're going again tomorrow?" Frypan asks

"Yeah but bounds as nothings happened we want you lot running again, we still need to find the cliff" Minho reminds us all and I try not to roll my eyes.  
I didn't want to run again, I just wanted to be a full time med-jack again, not a runner slash part time medic.

Getting back from running that day no one had any news. There was no numbers, at least not in the 6 sections we had all ran today and we still hadn't found the cliff but going over maps, seeing which sections and days hadn't been fully discovered yet Minho was determined it was section 7 and that was the section he was running tomorrow.

It took him two days of running that section to find it, the cliff, the very way out of here. After the usual get together after running we went over to Frypan, Hannah and Winston with smiles on our faces and not just because of Frypans cooking this time.  
It was good news and was just what we needed after the whole number scare.

"Shouldn't you be over there sat with the others celebrating your find today?" I ask Minho as I walk up to him sitting away from everyone as they sat around the fire eating the last meal, their spirits high.  
I sit down besides Minho and he looks away from the map of section 7 he has in his hands to me.

"Just trying to mesmerise the way to the cliff so when it comes to getting out of here I know the way" he says folding the paper up and he passes it to me.

"I suggest you do the same in case something happens to me"  
I grab the paper but don't look away from Minho.

"Don't even think about-"

"I know" Minho says cutting me off

"I don't plan on going anywhere but there's a small chance something could happen to me before we crack this thing so it's just best if we all mesmerise the way to the cliff" I sigh and open up the paper. The damn runner has a point.

"Now come on, I'm starving" Minho says getting up and we share a smile and head towards the others.

 

"I found a number!" Sonya yelled, slightly out of breath as she jogged over to me, Thomas and Harriet at the lake the next day. She gets over to us and lands on her ass falling on to her back catching her breath.

"In section 3? What number was it?" Harriet asks

"8" Sonia huffs and we all share looks as Sonya stays on her back, relaxing all her muscles like we were currently doing waiting for the other runners to return.

"So that's two different sections showing numbers" I say not really knowing what that means, hoping my friends could shed some light on it for me

"What could that mean though?" Harriet asks clearly just being as clueless as me as to why sections were randomly showing numbers

"We need to figure out an order" Thomas says and Sonya pushes herself up into a sitting position

"Newt found the number in section 5 right? then Sonya in section 3 .. I'm seeing no pattern or order" Harriet states "Maybe were missing something" Thomas suggests

"But what?" I ask as we all share unsure looks. Sonya filled Minho in when he got back and then Newt as he was the last to return. We went over the maps of those two sections, looking at the days and what numbers they showed but we couldn't see any pattern or come up with what it could all possibly mean and we was all left feeling frustrated with it all, the papers surrounding us, reminding us of our defeat of being unable to make sense of any of this.

"Alright, that's enough, I'm done in, I need a shower, Son, help me put all this away" Harriet says getting up and Sonya nods, getting up to help Harriet collect the papers. The guys look to each other and all get up. I decide to carve another arrow while the girls shower, the guys sitting with the others and I use the time alone to just think. I never really got time alone to sit in the quiet to allow my mind to wonder. I thought about all the depressing things I had to think about, hell I had nothing to be delightfully happy about in here except that I was with people I trusted and could call my friends. But all I could think about was all the klunk we have to deal with. Would we ever figure this whole number thing out, what could it possibly  mean? It was irritating trying to figure it all out when we had no idea where to begin.

"Last time I was sat alone you made me come and sit with the others, now who's being unsociable" Minho says sitting besides me with a smile which I return

"Just thinking" I state with a shrug as I look over the arrow I finished making a while ago now as I had just been staring at the sky for a while.

"About what?"

"The maze, the code... everything" I say twirling the ammunition between my hands. Minho places his hand on the arrow stopping me from twirling and I look back at him. "Thinking is always a bad idea, I learnt that the hard way" he removes his hand and smiles

"Come on, were playing boring word games, better than sitting alone getting all depressed" he says and I smile

"I think I prefer my thoughts to those bloody word games" I say and Minho laughs

"Your starting to sound like Newt, want me to keep you company?" he asks and I raise a brow at him

"I hate those games too!" I laugh and he smiles and we both look up at the sky.

 

Sonya kept running the same section, we only had 4 days of that section fully mapped out so Minho went with her on the days that wasn't already mapped to try and find that end wall that held the number. Each day they returned, the number counting down yet again but when it came to the number 2 they returned with news, confusion on their faces as we all gathered, all 10 of us sat on the grass in a circle around the unit fire, ready to hear what they had to say.

"Ok so as you all have pretty much gathered already, it showed the number two, but it was different today" Minho begins and it was silent around the circle, none of us daring asking, knowing he would fill us in.

"The number was still there but.." Sonya looks around the fire, looking at all of us before looking to Minho last

"It was green, bright green" She says looking to us all again, her sights landing on Newt

"Green?" Harriet asks and Sonya nods "Not red?" Thomas asks and Min nods this time and more silence

"I didn't think I could get more confused" Newt mutters and I silently agree with him.

What the hell? None of us spoke for a while, just sitting in silence as we all though about this, trying to wrap it around our minds. The number was a different colour, we didn't come across a green number in section 5 on the 7 days we ran it, could we be missing numbers, how high did it actually count down from?

"It has to do with the code" Minho says, like it was obvious after he had spent a minute looking at us all.

"We must have missed something in section 5" Harriet says

"That's what I think, we must have missed a number, maybe it counts down from a higher number than 7" I suggest speaking my thoughts "One section at a time numbers appear, that isn't just a coincident" Sonya says

"And a number a different colour defiantly sticks out, that number 2 in section 3 defiantly means something" Minho says

"The code out of here, there was a door right, the third answer to the code has to be the number 2" Thomas says and we all share looks, some looking hesitant to believe, others small smiles on their faces, either way we may actually be getting somewhere with this now

"So what, you think each section will show a different number?" Newt asks, looking like it was plausible because it actually was

"Yeah" Thomas says with a serious expression

"Think about it, last time it was words, maybe this time it's numbers, they've changed the lay out of the maze, nothing stops them from switching up the code out of here too" Thomas finishes "We need more runners, how many days until another person comes up that box?" Minho asks

"About a week" Harriet admits and Minho sighs agitatedly

"I ain't no runner, sorry guys" Frypan says apologetically and we all throw him understanding smiles, we wasn't angry, hell me and Newt hated running ourselves but we had experience in it. Frypan, Aris and Hannah hadn't.

When it came to eating dinner our spirits was lifted, we now had a theory of the code and I had a feeling we was on the right track with this and if Thomas was adamant on it then I was too, Thomas had gotten them out of the last maze and he was determined to do the same here.

"You know guys, I've just realised something" Newt says taking all our focuses from our food to hear what the blond seemed so happy about all of a sudden "If each section has a number appear and if the numbers do only go as high as 7 then in 8 weeks we could have the code" he says and we're all silent for a few seconds. A smile spreads across my face as I look at the floor thinking about what Newt had just said. He was right, there was only 8 sections to this thing and all we needed were 8 numbers. Or was that wishful thinking.


	7. Chapter 7

Minho and Thomas were the only runners today, we had found the next section with another number. I was the one to find it but it was higher than 7, in fact I found a number 20 hovering in that red circle on the wall and it defiantly wasn't there the day before, Harriet was sure of it so Min and Thomas were running that section today to find the number, today it would be 15 and we still hadn't found a number in green. It was section 8, the numbers wasn't going round the maze in orders section 1 - 8, they were muddled, going from section 5 to 3 to 8. It was hard to keep track of but we had written everything down. we still had 7 numbers in green to find if our theory on the whole thing was right but as Newt said last week, only 8 weeks tops and we would be out of here, a miracle, maybe too good to be true especially as the numbers were a lot higher than what we originally thought.

I was grateful for the days off, it was lucky too, Winston had an accident cutting up his pig for tomorrows dinner, cutting easily through his thumb, he was lucky to still have it, he probably wouldn't if I was out running. I fixed it up for him and it reminded me of the old glade when I was a med jack after a few months of being a runner. Running took a lot out of you and I defiantly preferred stitching people up than running up a sweat all day, that was for sure. Today I was also grateful I had a day off not just because of saving Winston's thumb, today a greenie would arrive up the box and I was hoping it was either Serah or Molly, the two others survivors of our Glade. I hoped they were still alive and was coming up, they had to.

The alarm signalling a new arrival made me jump, it felt like I hadn't heard it in years. We weren't far from the box when it went off anyway and we all slowly made our way over to it, waiting the few minutes until it reached the top. Newt and Harriet opened the doors, swinging them open and we all peered down. Blond hair was the first thing I noticed and than curious eyes met mine and the face smiled before looking at Harriet, Aris and Sonya. She stands up from her position in the corner on the floor and she holds her hand out to be pulled up. "Get me out of this thing" She says and Newt pulls her up. Harriet was the first to hug the familiar face then me and then Sonya.

"God it's good to see you guys, not to be back here though" Serah says and I smile, her attitude hadn't changed. She had plenty of questions, why was she back, why had she only just come up, where had she been, why were there guys, obviously we couldn't answer them, at least not all of them and not knowing for sure on those things but just like Hannah she sucked it up pretty well and we all just got to work. Serah was a bagger, she didn't have a problem seeing to dead bodies and sorting out rebellious Gladers and she was good at her job, having the attitude to match it. She wouldn't take shit from anyone though today she was helping Winston as she had no work to do and Winston, with his injured thumb could use an extra pair of hands and like I said, Serah wasn't one to shy from dead bodies, being humans or animals.

Another week passed, the green number in section 8 being number 8. Minho and Thomas kept running the same section though just to make sure it carried on counting down to zero, which it did and then we all went back to running. When I got to the end of section 1 there was no red circle so I started running straight back, kicking in the vines, scribbling down lines, double checking I had the section mapped out properly so then I could compare it with Thomas' map when we got back as today in this section had already been mapped out but Minho wanted everything to be thorough and a few maps of the same days never hurt, he defiantly took the maze seriously and I didn't blame him, no wonder he was the keeper of the runners in this glade and his last, he was thorough and knew what he was doing.

When I get back there was only Harriet to arrive and no one had found a number. We all just went over maps waiting for Harriet. She arrived a few minutes before it was time for the walls to close, Frypan and Hannah bringing our dinners over to us as she arrived.

"I found the number" She says though she's not smiling

"And?" Thomas asks as he takes his bowl of food from Frypan with a thankful smile

"You're not going to like this" She says and even Frypan and Hannah stop handing out food and look at the leader

"It's 50!"

"50 .. as in number 50?" Newt asks and she nods as she was still evening her breaths from running.

"Well klunk" Minho says and we're all silent.

Yeah defiantly longer than 8 weeks, I knew it was too good to be true. We all took it in turns to run section 4 where Harriet found the number 50. Minho deciding to run with me when it was my turn as Minho had had two days off from running and he just couldn't spend the day doing nothing even though Harriet offered to teach him some fighting tactics but it seems he'd rather run.

"You're clearly whacked" I state as we begin the run through the maze, Minho holding the map of this days wall layout put down on paper by Sonya.

"Why?" he asks generally confused yet far from offended, he was smiling

"For wanting to run" I state glad we could spend time together and talk while our breathes wasn't too harsh. He laughs, pointing left for us to run and he shrugs as we turn the corner

"I can't do nothing, running is all I really know, it's weird not doing it" He states

"So what are you going to do when we get out of here, run everywhere?" I ask with a smile and he rolls his eyes and looks to the map, taking lead and taking the right turning.

"Maybe I will" he says and I roll my eyes this time

"Yeah you're defiantly whacked" I state and he peers back for a second

"Maybe, but I think we're all a little whacked in here"

"Yeah, we have to be with you around just to put up with you" I tease back and he slows down so he's running besides me

"Haven't heard any complaints and I know you enjoy my company" he says with a smile

"Really?" I ask in mock

"Why do you think I'm running with you, I know you've missed running with me" he states with a confident wink and I snort a laugh. He was right but still I wasn't about to tell the guy that.

"More like you're running with me because you missed me, no one made you run with me" I state as we take another right, me pulling on a vine just to make getting back a little faster.

"I just know you like my company" he says like it was obvious

"You're the only one that likes you're own company here, not me" I tease and he smiles

"Keep telling yourself that, you're not fooling anyone" I laugh and pull on another vine as we turn another sharp corner

"You're so full of yourself Minho" I say

"You could be to-" He stops and looks down shaking his head and laughs

"I can't believe I just said that" he mumbles to himself but I'm blushing profoundly at his innuendo. Big headed and filthy minded, this guy was killing me. I laugh though, I couldn't help it, it really did make me laugh, being so unexpected and dirty. Minho starts laughing too, him also a little red in the face and we look at each other just laughing. It was nice to laugh.

"That's one way to make mini Minhos" I say after calming down and he laughs again, stopping his jog and leans on his knees looking down and I'm cringing as well as laughing. God this was so awkward yet funny. He stands up straight and smiles, his laugher finally dying down

"Come on, before I start laughing again" he says and we share a big smile and carry on running, we were quiet for a while, sharing smiles, almost giggling every now and then. When we get to the end of the maze the wall showed the number 46 like we knew it would but it wasn't green, just a bright red that made your gut uneasy. We take a 20 minute break, talking about the maze and codes like that awkward innuendo moment never even happened and then we head back to tell the Gladers the news of another red number.

Another month, another Glader. It was a short guy with short dark hair that survived the guys maze. They didn't know him that well but they were relieved to see a familiar face.  He was also a slopper which was a good thing as we now had someone to keep things tidy around here. The guys could be messy at times.

section 4 was number 28 as Thomas found though we kept running, watching as it slowly kept counting down day by day.

With only one person a day running, two at most when Newt or Sonya wanted to keep each each other company or if Minho wanted to join me and Thomas like he liked to do there was more people in the Glade to get things done.

We spent our days building the homestead with the supplies that kept coming up. We asked for building supplies weekly and although neither of us were builders we still seemed to be doing it right, it wasn't as hard as we first thought, especially with so many of us planning and working on building it. We needed it more secure than any other building knowing that someday the grievers would be in here when the doors stopped closing.

 

We was done building for the day, Frypan and Hannah was currently cooking while the others went over the blue prints Aris and some others had been working on for the homestead, making sure there was no weak spots and that it was as secure as possible. Thomas was the runner today, Minho being in their with him, that guy just couldn't stand around and do nothing, I still didn't know how.

 

I was sat by the lake carving my 15th arrow. I was done pulling splinters out of people's fingers and was just enjoying the peace and quiet.

Newt limps over to me, gripping his teeth as he sits besides me. 

"Hey Lexi"

"Hey Newt, everything ok?"

He looks at me pulling a face and I know something's wrong with the blond.

"Is it your leg?"

Newt sighs and rubs his ankle

"Yeah"

I make the skinny blond turn up his trouser leg and look over his ankle, after a few hisses from Newt whenever I would touch somewhere on his leg I make him roll it back down and tell him straight.  
"No more running!"

The blond almost looked relieved and we share a small smile.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wasn't going to post this chapter yet but it's Christmas so Merry Christmas ya shanks xD  
> This is my present to you.  
> Hope you have a good day surrounded by loved ones.  
> Akage x

Newt was no longer running, the guys having no problem with that and a month passed without a green number showing on that wall deep in the maze. Another Glader showing her face, It was Molly. the last female survivor from our Glade that we knew. It was smiles and hugs all around.

The guys got the fire started that night, Newt passed out the drinks and some of the guys fought as me and Harriet sat with Molly.

"You going to tell me about the maze?" Molly finally asks as we stare at the fire.  
Harriet smiles at Molly and I smile too when Molly looks at me, the tall dark haired girl was also smiling.

"You both seem confident" She says

"We're cracking the code, it's easy" Harriet says raising her glass bottle

"Don't get too cocky, remember they have eyes and maybe ears everywhere" I state on about the beetles and Harriet rolls her eyes

"So we can get out of here again?" Molly asks

"Yeah, with time" I say

"The guys are doing a lot of the leg work" Harriet admits looking towards the guys with a smile.  
I look over to the guys too. Minho fighting Thomas in the ring they have made.

"You not find it weird with guys being here?" Molly asks

"At first yeah but you kinda get used to them, they're good to have around" I admit looking back to Molly

"Yeah and besides, Sonya has a thing for one of them" Harriet says and Molly gasps

"Oh my god, which one, the brunette right?" Molly asks looking to Thomas and I laugh

"The blonde" I whisper and she looks to Newt with a smile

"I can see why" She admits with an eyebrow wiggle and we all erupt in to a fit of giggles making everyone look our way which just makes us laugh more. We hadn't even drank much of Newts mystery liquid either but we didn't care. It was nice, sitting here near the fire, surrounded by friends.

Minho catches my eye as I'm coming down from the laughing fit. He's smiling at me and I return it when Thomas nudges Minho pulling his attention away. I look down then to Molly who's wiping a tear.

"It wasn't even that funny" She admits and I chuckle and take a sip of the horrible drink.  
Looking past Molly to Harriet I can see her left eyebrow raised in a mischievous way at me.  
I give her a questioning look back and she looks at Minho across the fire.  
Oh shit.  
She smirks as I look back at her and goes back to looking at the fire.  
Is it that obvious that I like Minho? everyone knows we are friends and get on, that he likes to join me on runs but still, that's him running with me, I don't make him or ask.

  
I look around at everyone, Aris is with the other guy, Harry I think his name was and Hannah was with Serah, Winston and Frypan while the guys were sitting down together, they had grown tired of fighting and was just talking and drinking.  
Why were there guys in the Glade?

"Let's join the others, you need to get to know the guys" Harriet says, taking Molly's hand and sending me a smile as we go over to the guys.  
I roll my eyes but follow, grabbing my jar, knowing if I left it behind Newt would take offence.

Eventually we all sat together, multiple discussion going around the group. Laughter and more sexist comments which caused me and Minho to share a smile and eye roll.

"So did you say with Molly here that's all the girls from your group?" Newt asks Sonia getting my attention.

"No, there were three more girls that we weren't exactly close with, don't forget there was more girls than guys that made it" Sonya says though it was sadly

"So what do you think will happen in a few month, all we have left to arrive is Chuck and Teresa, think they will send new people up after that?" Newt asks  
"Maybe" Sonya admits and I look at the walls to the Glade. The walls long but closed now the sun was down, leaving the huge expanse of enclosed land in darkness.  
I felt sorry for every new person that would have to come up here.

"Any news?" Sonya asks Minho and Thomas as they return from their run the next day

"Still red" Thomas says disappointedly and I sigh and continue my work on my arrows. I had lost count of how many I had made now.

"Hey there shank" Minho says, sitting besides me

"Stick" he nods at my weapon which was besides me and I smirk

"You should shower, you stink" I state not taking my eyes away from the carving of the arrow

"Nice to see you too, the run went fine by the way, I didn't get eaten or poked by those big gooey spiders or anything" Minho states and I look up to him and smile

"I know"

Minho rolls his eyes and smiles as I go back to my carving and he sighs, enjoying his sit down

"So what number we on now?" I ask

"22"

"And still no green number?"

"Still no green number" he states and I look up at the walls

"I was looking over the numbers earlier while everyone was working, trying to find a pattern or something" I state and Minho's eyebrows raise

"I didn't find anything" I sigh looking down annoyed

"I didn't think I would though, I just .." I look back up to my friend sat besides me

"I don't get it, It started section 3 then 8 and now 4, no pattern in that and then the numbers, number 2 then 8, I don't get it, they're starting from different numbers too, 7 - 20 - 50" I sigh again and look up at the sky

"I don't get it" I say again

"Maybe we're not meant to get it, We just have to find those green numbers and get the hell out of here" I look at him and he smiles warmly at me, it was reassuring  
"You really know how to put my mind at rest" I say and he smiles  
"I have a lot of talents" he nods and I smile

"Alright love birds, break it up, need ya to look over the blue prints" Aris calls and I send him a death glare

"Jealous there Aris" Minho says getting up and Aris looks taken back and Minho smiles and puts his hand out for me to grab

"Come on then love bird" he says and I laugh and take his hand and let him pull me up

 

Harriet and Sonya were running today while everyone else worked on the Glade. Sonya usually spent her days off with Newt and Hannah in the gardens so I joined them today, learning new things about this place.

Winston and Serah were tending to the animals while everyone else was working on the homestead. It would be our first night in there tonight. It's taken us long enough but it's completely different. It's not round, instead it's square, there being more strength in the building that way. The walls were thick with wood and there was no windows, just the one door that had a wooden plank to bolt in place to lock it from the inside. It was almost like a prison, not that this whole place isn't anyway I though bitterly as I looked at the building. It had two floors and 5 rooms on each one. Small rooms but rooms none the less.  
Aris said he wanted to work on beds next while Frypan said they should start building the med shack which I seconded.

Once the girls got back from running to find yet another red number greeting them they helped us all move everything inside the building and we all just decided to sleep together in the back biggest room of the homestead. We were all used to sleeping close by anyway with the hammocks being together. We all picked a spot on the floor and got comfortable just talking, eating inside to celebrate the completion of the long awaited building although they admitted they would keep adding to it if more supplies came but for now it was finally safe to sleep in and safe enough to keep things out.  
I hadn't even seen a beetle in here, yet.

I was laying between Molly and Harriet as Sonya was between Thomas and Newt

"Abandoner" Harriet whispers in a playful mean way and I smile as I look at Sonya smiling to whatever Newt was talking about to her

"Ahh she's happy" I whisper back and she smiles

"I know, so how come your not sleeping next to Minho?" She asks

"You like Minho?" Molly asks

"Shut up!" I whisper shout and they both chuckle

"No! and because I don't want to, we're just friends" I reply

"Sure" Harriet says sharing a smile with Molly

"Oh man" I whisper and Harriet laughs quietly

 

 

"Looks like the rest hasn't been doing you any good" Minho calls from about 6 feet in front of me in the maze the next day.  
Usually I was ok at keeping up with the runner but not today.  
He lets me catch up and he continues running, staying next to me instead of running ahead like I knew he could.

"It's made me hate running even more" I pant and he smiles, putting his hand out making us both stop running. He grabs at the water and passes it me.

"We have time, lets take a small rest" I nod grateful and take the water and decide against sitting down, instead I lean my back against the wall and let the water wet my throat.

"Why don't you quit?" Minho asks when I pass him the water

"What, quit running?" I ask and he nods as he gulps a small portion of the water

"I dunno" I admit although I did know why.  
Truefuly I knew I could quit and not get any grief at all for it or even questions as to why.  
With the numbers we only had to run one section a day and that only called for one runner a day. Hell Minho could do this thing alone, not that we'd let him of course.  
Honestly the only reason I'm still running now is because Minho would join me on every single one and I enjoy running with him.

"It's ok to stop running the maze, we don't need runners and we do need a med jack" he states and I can't argue with him there.

"I don't want to quit, not yet anyway" I say and he nods and smiles, putting his drink away

"If you insist, you ready?"  
I sigh

"That was the shortest break ever" I say pushing myself off the wall and he smirks

"Gotta keep you on your toes" he says and starts running off

"Minho!" I call and chase after him

He stays ahead of me for a while but finally he slows down

"Ass!" I say and he laughs

"Bet you got a good look at it" he hits back and I laugh, shaking my head, regretting the fact I never actually checked him out.

We stop in front of the looming red circle at the end of the maze and Minho leans on his knees and nods  
I take a few more deep breaths and step forward, pressing the circle for it to grow to life, getting bigger and swirling, showing the number 11 in a bright green colour. I let out a relieved sigh and look at Minho who's smiling. He looks at me and we smile at each other happily.

"3 down, 5 to go" he says and I bite my lip happily and look back to the number.

 

Supplies came up, along with the monthly new person. For once Minho actually admitted to wanting to stay behind to see who the new person was. All the guys were up except for Chuck. Harriet ran instead of Minho, saying to say hello to his friend for him.  
Thomas seemed the most on edge, hanging around the box all day. He really wanted to see Chuck.

We all kept ourselves busy, I did an hours gardening while the others did combat training and worked on things around the Glade. Minho sat with me for a while, watching me make an arrow until the box alarm went off and we all ran over. Thomas ahead of us all.

Finally the box came up, coming to a stop and Thomas didn't hesitate swinging open the door.  
Thomas takes a few steps back and I see Newt put his hand on his friends shoulder.  
Thomas just walks away without a word and me and Sonya share a look. Chuck wasn't in the box.

Newt helps pull out a guy with ear lobe length brown hair. He wasn't scrawny, he had a physic a little smaller than Minho's, well built but not overly so and an attractive face although he looked confused and scared.

"Hey greenie, I'm Newt. Welcome to the Glade!" Newt steps back and the new guy looks at all the new faces surrounding him. When he looks over me I smile and I'm not surprised when he doesn't return it.

Aris showed the guy around and answered what questions he could as we all set up everything for tonight's welcome party for the greenie.  
He seemed to have settled a little by the time the guys showed a display of lighting the fire and passing out drinks and food. Thomas had a playful round with the greenie in the fighting circle. Thomas kicked his ass although he showed some strength and the guys cheered to the greenie, saying he was going to fit in just fine and then it was laughter and talk all round.

The next day Newt told me the greenies name was Jackson after he finished his trial in the gardens. I watched him have a drink with Hannah and Frypan as he stood with them over the pot outside at the food out house. He seemed to be getting along with everyone.  
When the week had passed he realised he was good at healing. Winston had had another accident cutting up the cow for some beef stew and Jackson watched me patch him up and he walked away, returning later with herbs from the dead forest turning them in to tea, making Winston drink, saying they had antibiotics in them which would help with the wound and Newt right then and there seemed impressed, saying "Well shank, looks like you two will be working together as med Jacks, fitting name really"  
Jackson looks at me and smiles and I return it lightly. This guy was good.

"So how did you know that plant held antibiotics?" I ask Jackson once Winston had gone back to work.

"I . . ." he scratches his head looking down "I don't even know how I know, I just ... do" He looks up at me and I give him a genuine smile.

"I know how frustrating it is, either way we're lucky to have you" I say and he smiles happily

 

 

"Whoo, they finally bought us something good!" Frypan yells as I'm walking up to the box of weekly supplies the day after.

"Chocolate?" Sonya asks.  
We share a smile having had this conversation last year. We remembered chocolate, not where we ate it or where it came from but we remembered what it looked and taste like and god damn we wanted it. They never sent us any up though.

"What is it?" Someone yells

"It's mattresses!" Newt calls thought he doesn't look too impressed and I nudge Aris aside gently to take a look.  
Piled up to the side were about 6 mattresses

"Great, guess you're all going to be fighting each other for them" I state unimpressed

"I say the runners get em" Minho shouts and we all share looks

"6 mattresses, 6 runners" He states with a serious face

"Cause that's fair" Sonya says but she's smiling and Newt smiles back at her

"Unless ya wonna fight me for it" Minho says to me and I look at him, his eyebrow raised playfully

"I could kick your shank ass any day" I state knowing I probably had a good chance at it, not that he knew me and Harriet used to fight but either way I always enjoyed Minho's banter and I liked it more when I was a part of it.

"You talk big, for a girl" He teases back and I hear Gladers ooh at the sexist statement though I could tell Minho meant no harm

"Wonna say that to my face, slint-head?" I ask  
Minho, who was opposite me on the other side of the box jumps inside it, wasting no time to walk around. He jumps up, stepping in to my face. He was half a foot taller than me and bigger built by far, his chest heaved in and out as he mocked a defensive pose and I smile, not being able to keep a straight face as he steps into my personal space.

"Ya talk big, for a -" he starts but then I push him lightly, nearly sending him back into the box but it was a light push and he doesn't go back far

"Thomas, hold me down man, I'll kick her, girl or not" Minho says and everyone just laughs, Thomas rolling his eyes

"Help with these mattresses" Newt calls and Minho smiles, the biggest smile I've seen on his face yet, his eyes crinkling up cutely and he laughs and pushes me slightly and jumps back in the box to help Newt and I shake my head, not being able to wipe the smile from my face.

The mattresses were carried in to the Home stead and the guys took all the mattresses upstairs without even consulting us about it but we don't follow, the homestead was full of people, bringing in the other supplies and sorting things out. I see Minho leave the building again at some point and return with more supplies as me and Jackson helped Aris sort through all the new medical equipment and we decided to claim a room for the med jack base for now before the med hut was made.  
Once that was done I decide to be nosy with the guys and their mattress arrangements and go upstairs to the floor that wasn't  used by anyone.  
I walk in the room to see the 3 mattress and frown as Thomas walks in, lobbing his bag besides a mattress

"What's up Lexi?" he asks me

"Where's our mattress?" I ask on about mine, Sonya's and Harriet's

"In the next room" Thomas states looking at me, then frowning as I do

"Why?" I ask

"Cause, well, you're a girl" I scoff and then I see his point, a little

"Don't trust yourself over our beautiful looks?" I ask mockingly and Thomas laughs as I hear footsteps sprinting up the creaky stairs, two at a time

"Thomas here has bad gas, and really big feet" Minho mocks, striding in besides me with his bag as the guys start moving into the room

"What's my feet got to do with anything?" Thomas asks confuses

"Cause they smell too dude!"

"Oh and yours don't" Thomas says

"I smell like roses" Minho says and I hear Newt laugh coming up the stairs

"Do I want to know?" he asks coming in, his bag in hand

"How come I'm next door?" I ask Newt, deciding to hear the answer off him too

"We just assumed you girls wouldn't want to sleep in the same room as us, Why?"  
I shrug

"I guess we would prefer that, with Thomas' big feet and Minho smelling like roses" I say and they smile and I leave the room, leaving them to get all moved in while I set up my new bed next door with a smile on my face.

When Harriet finds me a few minutes later, walking in to our new bedroom, the mattresses in the middle of the room with gaps between then she smiles

"This our room?" She asks excitedly

"Yeah" I smile and she leaves to get her things and I go and get Sonya.

"This wont do" Sonya says walking into the room.

Me and Harriet share a look and watch as Sonya pulls all the mattress together in to one huge bed

"Oh yeah?" I ask with mock alarm and she winks

"I want to be the middle spoon" Sonya says with a smile and Harriet laughs

"You just want our warmth!"  
She shrugs not denying it and I laugh.  
I liked the set up.


	9. Chapter 9

When Harriet and Sonya return from their run they confirm that the number is now zero and that tomorrow we all need to run to try and find the section with the new number, leaving out sections 3, 8 and 4 which we already had the numbers for.

"What's with the accessory?" Minho asks looking at the bow on my back making it sound like it's a bracelet as we head towards the wall the next morning as it was opening. I shrug before speaking

"I have started taking this everywhere, I need to familiarise myself with it, plus it'll be reassuring to have this thing in there, maze creeps me out" I state

"That's why you've got knives in your harness" Thomas says

"I feel safer with a bow" I admit

"Don't need weapons when you've got these guns" Minho says flexing his muscular arms and I laugh, I full on laugh and I enjoy it, cherish it even.

"Thanks Minho, I needed that" I say patting my friend on his shoulder and Minho rolls his eyes

"Last one back smells like Frypans scrambled eggs" Minho teases as the doors open and me and Thomas smile at the runner as he starts his jog in to the maze.

Half way through my run back I take a minute break to catch my breath and catch my barrings knowing I had time, leaving a few minutes earlier than usual not wanting to smell like Frypans rotten eggs. But when my breathing slows as I'm catching my breath I hear it. I don't know what it is but it's quiet, like rusted squeaks of something mechanical but it wasn't half as loud as Grievers. My heart beat picks up but I know for sure it's not the sound of a griever.  
When I snap my head to another noise, like something pushing off a wall and climbing lazily away I quietly sprint over to a wall and look down another path of the maze but I see nothing, no signs of anything even being in the maze.  
I take a deep breathe, am I losing my mind? it could have just been a bunch of beetle blades together. Not too quiet yet not as loud and as terrifying sounding as a Griever, plus it was daytime, nothing dangerous came out during the day.

I run back a little faster than I was planning to. Although I told myself it was nothing, there was a part of me that trusted my ears enough to know I heard something strange that didn't belong in the maze. Should I tell the others I heard something? or would they think I have been pricked by a griever.

"Lexi!"  
Thomas? As I'm running, only a few turns from the doors I can hear my name being called. There it is again, that was Newt. Minho, his calls louder than the others, why were they calling me, dammit I had lost. They were probably there to rub it in my face that I was last to return.

"Minho, what the hell are you doing?!" I hear Newt yell as I reach just one turn from the door, it literally just around the corner  
Then instead of my name being called it was now Minho's, I realised there was panic in Newts voice and annoyance and a tint of worry in Thomas' as they called out for Minho and I realised that was how they sounded when they were calling me, they were worried? What was going on, had something happened.  
Minho comes sprinting round the corner, he sees me just inches before a collision. He stops himself by gripping my shoulders, me nearly tumbling back from the impact of his sprint.

"Lexi!" He exclaims and exhales and gives me a look as if to say thank shuck

"Minho, what are you doing?" I ask  
He grabs my t-shirt by the shoulder and pulls

"Come on, let's get out of here" he says pulling me towards the corner he came from  
Coming in to the last corridor I see Thomas, Newt, Harriet and Sonya standing there as me and Minho run towards them, me still being dragged by Minho.

When we reach the safety of the Glade Minho drops his grip on my shirt and Newt's stood with his hands on his hips

"You just damn right broke the bloody rules! what were you thinking running back in there so close to them closing?" Newt says to his friend but there's a hint of remorse there, like he doesn't care, he's just grateful he's back in the Glade

"So chuck me in the damn slammer" Minho exclaims, hands lifting and dropping back to his side for a second as Newt shakes his head then looks to me

"Where the bloody hell have you been!?" He says to me  
I look at the 5 people surrounding me, making me feel like I am being scolded for doing something wrong.

"Running the maze, where else?" I ask confused

"We all got back over an hour ago" Thomas says and I go to ask him why when Minho speaks up

"You're one crazy Shank, you know that?"

"Erm thanks?" I say and Minho nods

"You're welcome" he states, hands gripping his holster and I smile at how absurd and damn right confused I am

"Now can you explain why you're all looking at me like I've summoned a demon, and why you were all back early?" I ask looking around at my friends

"You not see anything while you were out in the maze?" Harriet asks me, her eyebrows raised high

"No, reminds me, I did hear a weird noise" I state folding my arms deciding if anyone was crazy it was these guys. 

"What it sound like?" Newt asks stepping closer to me

"Erm, I dunno, like something scraping the floor, quietly, kinda mechanical, I followed it but didn't see anything and didn't really want to waste time on my way back, why?" I ask

"You telling me you didn't see those weird ass light men with bloody globs for heads?" Minho asks alarmed

"W-what?" I stammer. Usually I'd laugh but the sound of that, knowing with Wicked anything could be real I feel a lump forming in my throat and my blood runs cold.

"What weird men with weird heads?" I ask thinking I maybe didn't want to know the answer

"The things that are walking the maze, in the daylight!" Newt says pointing towards the maze, the doors still wide open

Panic had spread through the Glade like wildfire, everyone knowing before I even got back.  
So now there were things walking around in the day. After the long talk with those 5 we realised that they were only found a few hours in so they weren't that close to the Glade but nothing could stop them finding it. Minho said he got real close to one. They seem slow and he was quiet enough to watch it without drawing attention. But the thing that scared me the most was that it had huge blades on their shoulders, fingers and toes.

Newt, Thomas and Minho all saw one, Newt getting too close and running away from it when he almost ran into it. Luckily he said it was slow and he lost it after only 5 or 6 turns. I was grateful I didn't bump into one though I'm guessing that sound I heard was one of those things, patrolling the maze. We had no idea how many were out there or how long they have been out there but Thomas found it sketchy how we're nearly half way through cracking the code when those things appeared. It wasn't just a coincident.

 

The air was tense inside the bedroom I shared with Harriet and Sonya. They both sat on the bed, talking about plans with this new information. More defence classes and weapons being made while I just sat against the wall by the door. I knew this place was dangerous, The grievers, the changing, survival, I felt trapped, being sent here again, Would it ever end, would we all be spending the rest of our lives here, in the damn Glade, more people popping up each month, why though, it doesn't make sense.  
I think of the creatures the guys explained, dangers in the day, with the walls open. I was scared, really scared and it made me more grateful there were guys here with us this time. Yeah us girls are pretty damn tough and we escaped last time but it was reassuring to know we had Thomas, Newt and Minho here with us.

Minho. The runners face popped in to my head. It made me feel warm inside for a second as I looked at the wall to my right, hearing the guys soft voices, just coming through the walls next to us. He ran in to the maze to look for me, no one else did. I didn't think that guy liked anyone but the guys, he really did stick his neck out, hell even risked his life running in there to look for me.w  
Me realising that made Sonya look at me with a curious curved brow.

"What, you look like you just figured something out" She says to me

"Yeah I did, I never thanked Minho" I state getting up from the floor and they both look at me

"For what?" Harriet asks

"For coming to look for me" I state grabbing the handle and they both soften their features, knowing I'm right.

I knock on the guys door, the talking dying down a second before Newt speaks up

"Yeah?"

"It's me, Lexi" I state not wanting to open the door without being invited in

"Erm, come in" Newt says, clearly not expecting me at their door.

I open the door to see their hand held lantern sat in the middle of the empty room. the three mattresses lay out around it making a triangle.  
Thomas and Newt were sat up while Minho was lying on his back, hands behind his head.  
Suddenly I was nervous, I could have just thanked him tomorrow before we left for the scariest run through the maze of my life, discarding the last one when 20 grievers ran at us, but still.

"You ok?" Thomas asks me curiously

"Err, yeah, actually" I say looking to Minho

"I was wondering if I could pull you away for a minute, if you're not about to go to sleep?" I ask noticing he was still fully dressed lying on top of his sheet.

"Sure" He says looking curious and sits up, shares a look with the boys then pushes himself up and walks over to the door with me.  
I smile at Thomas and Newt as I close the door

"So what's up?" Minho asks, turning to look at me in the hall

"Nothing, erm, can we like, go somewhere?" I ask not wanting to thank him awkwardly in the hall with Sonya and Harriet, and even Thomas and Newt so close in hearing range. I don't want to be bullied with how nervous I sound. God why was I so nervous all of a sudden. How hard was it to thank a friend for wanting to save you? hard, clearly.

"Yeah, follow me" he says heading for the stairs so I follow

Minho holds the door open for me and we head out into the dead of the night. All the fires are put out and the only lights are from the building behind us.

"So, what's up?" he asks in a care free way and he huffs out a breath, putting his thumbs into his trouser pockets as we start walking, having no where in mind, just walking.

"Well it kinda hit me just that, well, you ran into the maze to get me" I say and look to my left to see his features. His left brows raised more than his right, like he's saying so?

"Erm, well .. thank you, no one else ran in there to see if I was ok" I state and Minho smiles lightly

"We were all worried, I think if I hadn't of ran in there Harriet would have" he states

"But you did it first" I point out and he just looks at me, waiting for more

"So, thank you"

"So you took a runner from his nice comfty mattress to thank him, you don't even have food, waste of my time" he says nudging me with his shoulder and I smile and look down

"Next time I need to thank you for something I'll raid Frypan's cupboards first" I state

"That's my girl" he says and I smile up at him, a blush creeping up my face at the word 'my'.

"I'm glad actually" Minho says a minute later  
I look at him and he glances my way before looking back in front of him

"I actually wanted to talk to you"

"About what?" I ask intrigued

"About running"  
I look at him, waiting for him to elaborate  
He huffs and looks at his feet before looking at me and I keep his gaze as he talks

"It's dangerous out there now, you really wonna be out there risking your life like that?" he asks and I sigh

"I dunno, I mean, sure I'm scared, I haven't actually seen those things yet and like you said earlier, we don't know how many of them there are but, I want to get out of here" I state and I see Minho's eyebrows furrow like he isn't pleased with what he's hearing

"I don't think you should run tomorrow" he states and stops, turning towards me and I turn towards him

"What?"

"Let us guys run the maze, go up against them, see if they can be killed, we don't want you getting hurt" he says and I frown

"More like you don't want me getting in the way" I state

"That's not what I said"

"But it's what I'm hearing" I state, feeling offended

"You said it yourself, you're scared, right? a place like that, now crawling with things in the day time, it's no place for anyone, never mind a girl"

"So it's because I'm a girl?" I ask

"Yeah, I guess, we don't want any girls going out there, Newt's idea, but I agree with him"

"Yeah well if you hadn't noticed Newts falling for a certain pretty blonde so he would say that to protect her" I state

"Can you blame him, Newt .. he's not had the best of times here Lexi, if he wants to try and protect someone then so be it but, let us protect you, the other girls, let us handle the fight" Minho says

"While we sit back and watch, there are 8 sections of the maze and only 5 runners, 4 if I no longer count so until another 3 runners appear I'm going out there" I state not wanting to appear weak and scared in front of Minho, for some reason I felt like I had to prove something to him.

"Lexi listen" he puts his hand on my shoulder and I look at it for a few seconds before looking in to Minho's brown eyes, just visible in the faint light from the distance glow of the lights and the moon shining high above.

"If I can't stop you from running then fine but, have a day off, we planned to go to a section together, to see if those things can be killed, we will decide what to do from there, ok"  
I sigh looking at him. Most the times he was a sarcastic cocky guy but now he seemed deadly serious so I huff and give in to the korean

"Ok"

"Ok" he repeats, squeezing my shoulder before letting go

"Let's head back . . . . . I need my beauty sleep!"

 

Im stood at the kitchen counter outside where Frypans started handing out breakfast as I watch Newt, Minho and Thomas leave together through the same door.  
I was annoyed that they were going without me but at the same time relieved I didn't have to go. They were going, not to run but to find one of those things they saw yesterday, to see how fast and strong the things were, how many of them ate out there and if we all actually had a fighting chance. I had to give it to them, they're a bunch of brave shanks.

"I'm worried" Sonya says at our seats on the grass, just a few yards away from the door the guys dissapeared into a few hours ago. Although I had made Newt pack in running he was adamant in going in there today.

"You think they should be back by now?" Harriet asks us both

"I hope nothings happened" I say  
We were all worried and there really was no hiding it, we didn't even try to.  
Aris walks over to us and sits next to us

"I should have gone with them" he states as we smile at him sadly

"Then we'd just be even more worried" Sonya says not taking her eyes off the wall

"I really wish those bastards sent us walkie talkies like we asked them to" Harriet says making me remember back to the original maze we were in together and our request for the things.  
Just like the chocolate our request wasn't granted.

Finally another hour passed and we saw movement at the end of the entrance into the maze. We all stand up and run towards it. As we run closer we can see the boys running towards us.

Newt had a gash above his right eyebrow, dry blood in a streak around his light brow. Thomas had scrapes on his arms and looking dirty and Minho had a tare in his shirt

"Oh my god, are you guys all right?" Sonya asks, running up to Newt and checking out his eyebrow for the boy to hiss and smile at her  
I walk up to Minho and put my finger in the hole in his shirt and pull it away from his body, looking for any signs of blood. Minho's eyebrow raises but he doesn't push me away

"Just a scrape" he states and I drop the t-shirt and give him a stern look

"You seriously fought one?" I question

"Not one, 3!" Thomas says and we all share looks.

"They're slower than Grievers, that's for sure" Newt says as we sit in the main room in the homestead, along with all the other Gladers having a last minute gathering

"But they're still fast enough to nip us on occasion" Thomas says, a small smile on his lips and I was shocked at their smiles, they were happy, proud to have killed 3 of those things.  
And honestly I was also proud of them.

"They have a weakness" Minho says, sitting forward on his chair, his hands clasped together as he looked up at everyone.

"A weakness?" Aris asks

"Their lights, or whatever" Newt says looking to Thomas for help to explain this

"They have these, lights, on their bodies, knees, arms, chest, break them, all of them and they just stop dead" he states

"So if any make it to the Glade we all have a chance?" Jackson asks and Minho nods

"Yeah, they're easy, once you know how" Newt states confidently at the other runners and I smile and share a smile with Harriet. Finally some good news.

 


	10. Chapter 10

The runners next door waking up, moving around, getting ready the next morning makes me know it's stupidly early, runner early so I slip out of bed, careful not to wake Sonya as I carefully move her arm which was wrapped around me and I put it over Harriet instead and they cuddle together as I pull my jeans on from yesterday after changing my underwear and I put my trainers on.  
Hearing the guys leave their room I grab my small back pack and bow and quietly go down the stairs, making sure my quiver with my 10 arrows are fixed on to my back properly.

When I reach the warm outside I see the guys haven't gotten far, heading towards the food hut for their left over food from Frypan.  
As I'm running up to them they stop for me to catch up

"What are you doing?" Minho asks, looking pissed off

"I'm coming with you, I want to see one of those things" I say determined  
They all share looks, Newt and Minho looking the most unsure

"Just once, just let me see one once and I wont run again if it makes you happy, I just want to know what we are up against and if I can kill it" I state

"Wait, you want to try and kill one?" Thomas asks as they all eye my bow

"Yes, when we get out of here we're gonna have Grievers and those to worry about, I've killed a Griever! I think more of us should go out there and try and kill them"

"That's bloody crazy" Newt snorts in a laugh and I sigh

"You're damn right jacked" Minho says with no ounce of amusement

"She's got a point though guys" Thomas says

"Thank you" I say and Thomas smiles at me before speaking up again

"It's best if everyone knows what they're up against, we've all seen and fought the Grievers" he states and Minho raises a brow, waiting for his leader to decide

"Fine, you can come with us, I don't see the harm in it just this once" Newt says and I have the urge to hug him though I fight it

"I could just hug you" I admit and he smiles shaking his head

Thomas smiles at me and we head for breakfast to pack our bags with some fruit and sandwiches for the run today.

"So slink" Minho says, using one of our terms, causing me to smile

"How good are you with that bow?" He asks

"You'll hopefully find out soon enough"

Minho looks at me with a worried expression before biting in to his apple as we sit on the grass resting and eating before our long run. Looks like he wasn't too happy with me going in there.

 

3 hours we were running before we even heard anything, I was starting to think the guys were having us on about this whole thing but I knew they wouldn't cause a panic with everyone unless they were 100% sure.

"Wait" Minho says, coming to a stop close to a corner, putting his arm out to stop me. I stop and take a few breathes, the shallow harsh breathes of everyone being all I can hear for a while until my pulse steadies and I can actually hear it. I didn't know how Minho picked up on it so easily but I heard it too, finally. The same sound I heard 2 days ago when I was running.  
The slow mechanical sound of something moving, slowly.  
Thomas peeked his head around the corner then looked at me sullenly for a second before he nudged his head for me to take a look.  
I don't even hesitate, being too curious I poke my head around the corner and gasp quietly at what I see. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, it was like something out of a horror movie I'm sure. Strange dis-formed limbs lolling about slowly and dumbly, strange lights almost like light bulbs attached in places. There was no head so to speak, no features, no eyes, nothing, just a big glob of yellowish skin, like the rest of it's body.

"That's foul" I whisper and Minho nods in agreement.  
I look away from the creature slowly making it's way down the chamber of the maze and look to the guys.

"You took out 3 of those?" I ask and Newt nods

"And you're about to take out one" Thomas states, eyeing me closely. I gulp and grip the end of my bow.

"Or we can stealth around it, your choice" Minho states, clearly seeing the hesitation in my eyes  
I shake my head. I knew when the time came I would have to fight these things, maybe even two or three. I had to do this, this was the whole point I was here and I couldn't back down now.

"Let's get this over with" I say and Minho nods then peers around the corner.  
He whistles, loudly and then stands from his cover, standing in the middle of the pathway and Newt and Thomas join him, standing each side of him.  
I stand next to them after a few seconds and notice the light monster, just standing at the end of the hallway, just facing us, that whistle getting it's attention.

"You got enough arrows right?" Minho asks and I nod

There was a pause for a few seconds after that, the calm before the storm.  
Time seemed to still for a while as we all just stood there, letting the situation sink in.  
It was fight time, time to show the guys I could defend myself, that us girls had just as much gut as the guys did, if not more.

"Here goes nothing" I finally say as the monsters arm twitches and it starts walking towards us.  
I take my bow from my back and grab my first arrow, notching it in to place I take a deep breath.  
The thing was too far away at the moment so I concentrated on my breathing and lining up my target as Minho stood besides me, watching me as Thomas and Newt had stepped back to give me some arm room.

"Aim for the lights" he says calmly and I realise I was jealous of this man. How could he be so calm and collected when there was a creature slowly ebbing towards us.

I take a deep breath and aim down at a light in the leg. My tactic to slow the things down, disable the thing if I could. I had plenty of arrows and could easily kill this thing with my bow but I wanted to also put my training into practice and test this creature, I didn't tell the guys that though and I was slowly gtting more confident in the idea as I watched at just how slow this thing was.

"What you waiting for?" Minho asks me curiously as the thing kept edging closer

"I want to make sure I hit the thing" I state as I watch it slowly edge closer and closer

"Then try shooting"

"Har har" I say mockingly and take another breath then as I exhale I let my arrow fly, it sours with a low whooshing sound and hits it where I aimed, right in the knee.  
The bulb breaks, extinguishing the light and breaking the bulb, it shattering. The thing nearly lost it's footing, twisting to the side in a sway of limbs before it got it's balance back and stood straight, continuing to move forward, with a slight limp.  
I grab my second arrow and repeat, aiming for the other knee. When I'm positive Ill hit I let the arrow fly and hit my target again, this time the thing falls to the floor after the other light pops and fizzes as it smashes.  
I see Minho smile and I let out a small smile myself, trying not to get too proud just yet, the thing was still alive after all and trying to get up on it's feet.  
I aim for it's arms as it fumbles to pull itself up. The arrow sours through it's arm, taking out the bulb as it hit and the thing makes a weird scream like howl and I wince. I knew I was going to have nightmares about this thing tonight.  
It somehow pushed itself to it's feet and I got out my last arrow I was willing to use, aiming for it's chest as it limbed towards us a little faster than it did last time, now only about 12 feet away.  
I let my arrow fly and it just catches the bulb in the things chest and another strange noise emits from the thing though I had no idea where from as the thing had no mouth.  
I put my bow on the floor and step back, grabbing my knife from my small pack and hold it out in front of me, not used to having to use these things as much as my bow.

"What the hell are you doing?" Minho roars 

"What I came here to do" I state

"Then pick your bow up!" He demands but I ignore him

"Lexi" Thomas warns

"I want to fight it head on, I know you guys will jump in if needed" I state and I hear Minho scoff and pull out his knife though he doesn't step back

"What are you doing?" I ask Minho annoyed giving him a glare

"I'm not gonna let you fight it alone"  
I turn away, knowing it's best not to argue with Minho and especially not now with that thing so close.

I stand there in shock for a few seconds, watching as the things hand comes to swipe at Minho, missing his head by a few inches and Minho's knife sinks in o the things chest. He drags his blade through it's thick skin, opening up the disgusting yellow flesh and pops another bulb and I watch in fascination.  
Minho then yanks his blade free from it's skin and steps back as the thing goes to kick him, missing him with the spears where toes should be and I almost yell watch out but Minho was faster than my brain to mouth functions and I realised I was a mess again, like I was watching my friends in the last fight against the Greavers. I snap out of it, knowing last time it got me no where and I step forward, stepping next to Minho as we watched the creature swipe at us, missing by a good foot as it headed towards us. Taking note that Thomas and Newt were stood back ready to jump in if needed.

"Ill aim for it's left arm if you aim for the lower bulb" I say, Minho nods and we sprint forward towards the thing together to try and end it's miserable life.  
It's arm came towards my head faster than I thought it could at how damaged it was. I duck in time but a few strands of my hair is caught. I grab the things arm with my left hand and then quickly with my other push my blade into its bulb, closing my eyes as it smashes and the thing jolts in my hand when I hear Minho pant, yanking his blade back from the things flesh as he pops the last bulb and the thing falls to the floor.

Slashes on it's chest and still 2 of my arrows stuck in it's body, it was finally dead.  
I take a deep breath to steady my nerves and then I find myself smiling as Newt and Thomas come besides us.

"We did it" I say happily looking to Minho. He looks at me, breathing heavily with an after battle face until he sees me smile then he smirks and slaps my upper back lightly and huffs a smirk

"Not bad, for a girl" he states and we both laugh, our victory causing us to feel pretty damn good about ourselves.

"But don't ever do that again!" he says sternly, his smile is gone now as he looks at me

"I'm sorry" I say looking at my three friends and Thomas smiles. He was always the most understanding out of the three, probably because he was just as reckless as me, if not more so.

"Did it get you?" Thomas asks as Minho steps over the monster to look over it's dead form.

"No, well it got my hair but no, I'm fine" I smile as Minho looks back at me  
I couldn't believe we killed it without getting hurt.

"Alright, we still have a number to find!" Newt says, patting me on the shoulder which I took as a good thing. Looks like the leader wasn't angry, or if he was he was too impressed with me to give me a scoulding. I smile to myself as the guys start their jog and I give chase. Though that was the last time I entered the maze, for a long time anyway.

 

With the creatures appearing the guys told us that us girl runners wasn't even aloud to step foot into the maze any more. Harriet was far from happy with it, she spent a good hour arguing with Minho about it last night after we got back from the maze until me and Newt had to pull them away from each other.  
So now it was up to Thomas and Minho to find the number, going heavily armed to the teeth in case they come across those things.

They got back that afternoon without finding a number on the wall though they did have a few scrapes making me and Jackson pull them away after dinner to tend to their fresh scrapes.

We still didn't have a hut made to tend to our patients yet though there was plans on building one soon so we sat in a room in the homestead. Jackson was looking over Minho while I was looking at the cuts on Thomas' arms. Jackson and Thomas talked about the maze and what it was like, Jackson having never entered, he seemed curious though he admitted not enough to want to enter into it.

Minho didn't really speak much though he wasn't in a mood or anything. He kept looking at me though, like he had either something to say or ask so as soon as the runners were dismissed I asked Minho to wait back a second and told Jackson to carry on and that I'd clean the equipment away.

"Ill help" Minho says, walking over to me as Jackson leaves with Thomas.

We put everything away in silence and when the rooms is back to normal, the med bag now packed I look at Minho.

"You ok?" I ask him

"Yeah, why?" he asks looking amused that I'm asking him

"You just, look somewhere else"

"I'm right here" He says raising a brow and I smile

"You know what I mean, something on your mind?" I ask and he looks at me for a little while, crossing his arms over his chest

"Well, yeah" he says pulling out the chair Thomas hadn't long got up from and he sits down as I lean against the wall in front of him

"I wanted to talk, I couldn't yesterday cause Harriet was up in my face about her running but, it's about the other day, In the maze" he says and I think back to the time we killed that light bulb creature.

"What about it?" I ask worried, feeling like I was in for a scolding 

"When you dropped that damn bow, deciding to take the thing on with a damn hand knife, you got a death wish?" he asks though his tone wasn't harsh. If anything he was concerned. I sigh 

"I know what you think, I was stupid and being careless"

"A little" He agrees with a scoff

"But, I knew I wouldn't always have my bow to back me up but I would have you guys to, I just wanted to see if I could kill the thing without the range, there's going to come a day we are all running through that maze to get out of here and I want to be able to protect the people I care about"

"And what about the people that care about you?" Minho asks "What do you think would happen if you died out there trying to play the hero?"

"I'm not trying to play the hero!" I say angrily

"That was stupid and careless, you're right! and even if you're not playing hero purposely it's still what you're doing, it's not a bad thing Lexi, hell I do it too, Thomas is the worst for it but all I'm trying to say is think about others feelings before you run at danger head on, people care about you and would be shucked if you die"

I sigh and look down feeling bad before looking back at Minho, his eyes looking right into mine.

"I'm sorry" I say and he sighs and stands up, blocking the light from the torch lamp on the opposite wall.

He places his hand on my shoulder and gives me a small smile

"Just promise me you'll tell me if you're planning something reckless, least then we can do it together" Minho says with a smile that reached his eyes and I smile too and nod and he puts his arm over my shoulders and he leads me outside to the others.

 

 

 

It took Minho and Thomas two days to find the next number, finding no number in section 2 they moved on to section 1.  
We was all sat in the homestead when they returned. Frypan and Hannah being the only exception as they was preparing a meal.  
Minho sits down, leaving the finding to Thomas to explain as he sits down next to Minho looking at us all

"You didn't find it?" Sonya asks and Thomas shakes his head

"Oh we found it alright" he says looking to Minho who looks pissed off

"97!"  
Newt looks down saddened and I take a few minutes to figure that out. 97 days, that's 3 months.

So for 3 months I worried every single day whenever Minho would enter the maze with Thomas. They always took longer too, taking the stealthy option instead of running in there determined to kill everything they see which I was grateful for. Harriet and Sonya kept arguing their cases for a month and finally won one day in the maze to give Thomas and Minho a break but that's all they got, the one day.

The green number turned out to be 37 but still they ran to watch the number slowly, day by day count down to zero.  
The three new people came up, two girls, Alison and a chubby girl names Kiera and a guy called Andy who wanted to be a runner so he was spending his time with Minho and Thomas a lot. I think they was grateful for it, knowing that he knew what was out there but still wanted to be of use. I looked up to the guy really.

When the day came for them to start looking for another number in another section they took Andy with them, as Minho said theirs no better way to learn than to get stuck in. There was also a bet on that Andy wouldn't last over 2 hours.  
They returned to find nothing and they hadn't ran into those light creatures although they heard one and waited for it to get further away. Andy also surprised us all by having as much stamina as Thomas did when he came up.  
When they finally found the number 3 days later the number was on 148 meaning another 5 months in this place before we can even think of getting the other number and we all dreaded at what number that could be on when it begins it's count down.

As time passed my worrying for the runners never died down though thankfully Harriet and Sonya was now running every few days thanks to a gathering where Harriet asked for a vote, calling the guys demeaning to women, it was messy but finally they got what they wanted. Harriet showing she still had a part in running this place.  
Finally Minho apologised to Harriet and now they seem to be getting along, thank the gods, those two could really kick up a scene and argue for hours.

More people came up and the more faces we didn't recognise the more Thomas got funny on greenie day. According to Newt they still hadn't seen Chuck or Teresa and it was getting to Thomas.  
Aris was the same, if not worse. We still hadn't had Rachel come up yet. Where were they, why hadn't they come up yet? Were our minds erased some more before we were sent back up here, could they all be dead and we just don't know it? That was a grim thought and one I knew it best not to share with the others.

"Hey" Minho says, coming over to me to lie besides me, tearing my thought away

"Hey"

"What you doing?" He asks looking around. My bow on the ground and no new arrows made up

"Just thinking, I like to sit here and get away" I admit

"Yeah I've noticed" he says with a smile

"So you didn't run into any today?" I ask looking up at the sky, the sun fading, it would be dark within the hour.

"Yeah, haven't seen a Lighter for a while now, were like ninjas!" Minho says casually then he looks at me and smiles causing me to chuckle

"U huh, Glade ninjas, sure" I tease

"Wait, that what you're calling them now, Lighters?" I ask

"Yeah, Thomas' idea, we got Grievers, Lighters just sounded right" he shrugs and I smile

"So, how many numbers are left now?"

"Just 8"

"How many sections we got to go now?" I ask  
After not being involved for a while it's all just left my head, with helping Jackson learn whatever I have to teach him and making another bow I haven't given the numbers much thought.

"3 after this one" Minho says

"Either way were still going to be in here a while right?" I ask pushing myself up to a sitting position. Minho leans on his elbows looking at me and I look at my hands in my lap feeling shitty.

"It's not a bad thing Lexi" He says and I look at him surprised

"How can you say being stuck here isn't a bad thing?" I ask confused.

"We're with friends ya shank, and the longer we are in here the longer we have to get ready for that last day, Harriet, though she gets on my nerves she's damn good at her fighting, you're making bows right, I hear Newt helps you with arrows, and the longer the more people, with those Lighters here now as well as the Grievers we need all the greenies we can get to fight those things. Were gonna get out of here, were not stuck here forever, you believe me right?" he asks, pushing himself up to sit as he looks at me. He seemed serious, even if that sounded like a prep talk that I could easily tease him for I actually believed him, it made sense. I smile and look back at my lap as Minho picks a flower nearby and twirls it between his thumb and forefinger.

"Yeah, either way I can't wait to get out of here" I state as I look at the wall in the distance

"You me both shank" he says and I nudge him with a smile.

"You know I don't know where I heard this but, apparently if a girl puts a flower in her hair it shows people she's crazy" he says getting up on his knees in front of me. I eye the blue flower curiously and he puts it in my hair

"There ya go, now everyone in the Glade will know you're whacked"

"Then where's your flower?" I ask as he leans back looking at his work

"Blues not my colour" I laugh and he sits besides me as we watch the last of the light fade as the glade turns black. I lean my head on his shoulder and surprisingly Minho lets me without saying a sarcastic remark. We sit there for a few minutes, just enjoying the silence before he speaks up again.

"Anyway, I came over here to tell you something"

"And what's that?" I ask intrigued

"Were throwing the biggest party so far tomorrow"

"For the greenie, why?" I ask confused. What makes that new guy coming up tomorrow so special

"No not exactly, we've been here a year tomorrow!" I remove my head from Minho's shoulder and look at him. He nods. He wasn't lying

"Shit" I mutter looking over the glade. Had it really been a year?


	11. Chapter 11

I don't know how I didn't realise it had been that long. there was over 12 people here, with a group of us coming up at once but still that alone should have triggered something for me to realise we had been here a long time now. It had actually gone fast even if I had been moaning about it taking forever for us to crack the code. Hopefully time goes by just as fast the coming year we're here.

The fire was made even bigger, I had no idea why, maybe it was just something for the guys to do to keep them busy all afternoon, collecting firewood. The food was great and the alcohol was coming in case fuls. It actually felt like a celebration though I had no idea what for. So we had been here a year, that's nothing to celebrate.

"Come on Lexi, dance!" Sonya says grabbing both my hands and pulling me up from my seat next to Aris as we watched everyone socialise, drink, dance and playfight. I guess we wasn't in the party mood today.

"And you!" Harriet says, dragging Aris up who didn't really put up much of a fight.

Sonya laughs as we reach the other dancers. Serah and Winston dancing, Frypan holding Hannah's hand above their heads as she spins with a smile. I crack a smile too and decide I'm still alive and am surrounded by awesome people, I could celebrate that at least!

I swapped dancing partners, dancing with Aris for a while who was actually a really good dancer and then he called it quits and Newt walked past, passing me a jar of the 'good stuff' as he called it and he started dancing with Sonya. I dance with Harriet, that is until Harriet spotted Andy, the new runner sat alone watching us all dance.

"Join us!" She calls over the drums 

Andy shakes his head and Harriet goes over to him, dragging him up

"Come on, it's fun!" She insists and Andy looks at me

"It wont hurt you to dance" I say with a smile and he looks between us

"I've never danced before" He admits looking scared and Harriet smiles

"How do you know? it's easy, just try it" She says and Andy rolls his eyes

"Minho's gonna rip me a new one for doing this but fine, what the hell!" he says passing me his half empty jar and I step back with a smile, watching Harriet laugh and smile at Andy and his awkward dancing.

"Having fun?" A voice asks me to my right and I turn to see Jackson stepping besides me and we share a smile before I get an idea

"Shall we?" I ask pointing my head towards the dancers

He raises a brow at me and I roll my eyes, putting Andy's drink into Jacksons hand and pull him over to the other dancers with the other.

When we reached the end of the jars I was done in and we sat down on the line of 3 chopped down trees we use as benches outside, not too far from the party to rest our legs.

Harry comes over, passing us another jar each and we thank him and watch the fighters in the ring. The greenie being challenged to a match by Chris who is now no longer the latest guy here. I think Chris was a builder but I hadn't even tried to get to know half the people here, not that I wasn't nice. All in all the party was better than I thought it would be.

 

 

"Okay, now what?" Jackson asks, holding my arm up as he used one of the few arm wrap bandages we have the next day as we sat in the med room.

I felt like crap and I'm pretty sure I have what the guys called a hangover but I couldn't remember much of the night before after Harry passed me that jar. I couldn't face the noise, hiding away in here all day sounded like a great idea.

"Now you have to make sure it doesn't come off, we have nothing fancy here, there's tape over there" I nod to the bag of supplies  
He smiles and goes over to the bag, grabbing the tape  
He rips it with his teeth and fastens the wrap and I look it over

"It's ... erm"

"It sucks, I know" he says and we both laugh

"Yeah, I've seen better, here let me wrap you and watch carefully" I say taking the wrap off my arm and I make him push up his sleeve.

"So you're friends with the runners right, Minho" Jackson says as I start my work on his arm as he watches

"Yeah, why?" I ask

"How they doing on getting us out of here?"

"Good, they're risking their lives out there to get us that code" I say proudly and I see Jackson smile

"I've noticed you're closer with Minho"

"I guess you could say that, we just get on, he's a laugh"

"So you like funny guys?"

"I like anybody with a sense of humour, again why?" I ask looking at him

"Nothing, just thought there was something between you two"

"Yeah, it's called friendship" I state and he laughs

"Alright, I get it, hows Aris doing anyway?"

"Not too great" I say feeling sad. Aris was backing away from everyone and everything with Rachel still technically missing. His mind must have come up with every singly possibilty of where she could be, that guy was torturing himself. Jackson sighs. He may not know the guy that well but he still cares.

"Maybe he could do with another friend" I hint and Jackson looks up at me and nods.

"See, that's how you wrap" I state a minute later looking over my work

"Looks loads better than mine, can I practice for a while?" He asks and I nod, having nothing better to do anyway  
I had been sat in the homestead the past two hours with Jackson.

Harriet and Sonya were running today, Newt had a lot of gardening to do so he couldn't sit with me and help me make arrows so I thought I'd hang out with Jackson, teach him a thing or two or make him teach me a thing or two about natural remedies and herbs, seems I'm teaching him today.

"So what's your story?" Jackson asks while he wraps my arm for the second time

"It's boring" I state

"It's better than mine" We look at each other and I smile

"Touche, Well, I woke in a box too though it was a very long time ago, I came up to a Glade full of girls, unlike this one, there was no guys, except when Aris came up the week before we got out. I ran, for a little while as I became friends with the leader, who was also a runner, and Sonya, leader of the runners though I didn't really like it, just did it to fit in really, felt like I was doing what was right, didn't want to be looked down on, girls can be, well bitches, I was just some new greenie that made friends with the leader, I got called a lesbian suck up, Harriet and Sonya joked I fancied them to cheer me up, kissing me in public, was actually funny but it did make me feel shitty, So I ran, it got me away from the bitches and kept me busy but, man it was tiring, I don't know how Harriet, Sonya, Minho and Thomas do it, one day, Emily her name was, she broke her leg from running around on the stupid hill, I realised then that I knew how to tend wounds so I asked to become a med jack and I did. I didn't exactly have a great time in that place but this place, with the guys and my friends, it's good" I state  
I hadn't realised I had been talking so much until I actually stopped and Jackson was looking at me with sympathy and I look at my arm

"I'm sorry" I say "I like to talk"  
Jackson smiles "It's fine, It's just, yesterday you looked depressed"

"What?" I ask confused

"When I walked out of the showers, I saw you sat by the lake, you looked really down in the dumps, if this place is better than the last then I dread to think what you was like before" he says and I find myself smiling

"I'm not usually like that, last time I thought there was a way out, for good! you know? but then I wake up in another Glade, just makes me think what will happen when we actually break out again, another damn Glade?" I say sighing  
Jackson stops wrapping and puts both hands on my shoulders looking into my eyes

"Were getting out of here Lexi, for good this time!"  
I laugh "You make it sound like you've been here before"

"No offence, but Im glad I haven't" I smile and the door opens as Jackson gives my shoulder a squeeze.

It's Minho and Thomas, looking sweaty. They had been having a lazy day sitting in the sun and I didn't blame them.  
Minho's mouth is open like he's going to speak but he shuts it as I smile at him but he doesn't return it

"You two going to stay inside all day, Frys about done cooking dinner" Thomas says before eyeing Minho  
Jackson had removed his hands as they walked in. He unwraps my arm carefully and Minho folds his arms looking at Jackson

"We will meet you at the picnik table" Minho says before leaving without another word, Thomas close behind

"Is it just me or was that slightly weird?" Jackson asks looking at the door the guys have just left through

"Yeah, it was"

Outside everyone was sat together, waiting for Hannah and Frypan to call when the foods ready for us to line up.  
There really was a big group of us now, I still didn't know the names of a few of them but I didn't really want to make more friends. It was bad enough worrying about the runners and knowing that my friends could die before we get out of here. That to me was reason enough why not to make more friends.

"Lexi" Harriet calls as I spot Harriet, Sonya and Newt sat with Thomas and Minho. I smile and walk over to them. Jackson catches my arm and I look at him before we get to them.

"I'm gonna try and speak to Aris" he says and we both look over at the guy, sat by himself.  
I smile at Jackson

"Thank you" he nods and heads over to him while I sit next to Harriet.

"What's with you and doctor sexy?" Harriet whispers to me and I give her a funny look before laughing

"Doctor sexy?" I ask and she shrugs and I look over to Jackson. He was good looking.  
I smile at Harriet

"Want me to hook you up with him?" I ask

"Hell no, I don't want a boyfriend, don't want you getting jealous neither?" She teases and I scoff

"There'd be no jealousy"

"Who's jealous of who?" Sonya asks, joining in on our whisper conversation

"No one" I whisper back

"Dr sexy!" Harriet says

"Oh Jackson, why, what?" Sonya asks

"Do you all call him doctor sexy?" I ask them both and they share a look and Sonya shrugs  
I eye Newt and go to tease Sonya when I catch Minho's eye but he looks away as soon as I look.

"It's mostly to tease the guys, all the girls like Jackson" Harriet says like it was common sense

"Good to know" I whisper sarcastically sitting back

"What are we whispering about?" Newt asks leaning towards Sonya and we all smile

"Girl things" Sonya whispers back and Newt smiles as Sonya pushes Newt away

"So you like Jackson, I thought you had a thing for Minho" Sonya whispers, wiggling her brows and her and Harriet laugh, causing every one to look at us. I look around the table and notice Minho looking at me again before he looks back to Thomas besides him and I let out a breath, thankful he didn't hear.

"Shut up" I whisper before giving a death stare to Harriet for telling Sonya

"I couldn't not tell her" Harriet says and I frown "I don't like anyone" I lie hoping they'de drop it but they both give me a look, yeah they wouldn't ever drop this.

That afternoon, after dinner and the doors had closed we all sat in the Homestead. Minho still hadn't spoken to me but I was still too occupied to think anything of it, it was only the weird glances he would give me that caused me to look at him weird when he looked away. What was he looking at?

We were all laughing when the door to the homestead burst open, Hannah holding a weak looking boy over her shoulder.  
We all get up, a few running over to him, taking the boy from her arms.

"What happened to him?" Newt calls over the voices of the other Gladers.

"He said he was stung by a wasp before he collapsed" Hannah says looking at him worried  
I hear someone call the boy Percy and Jackson puts Percy over his shoulder and takes him to the room in the back to lie him on the one and only wooden bed we have built so far with a straw mattress.

"It looks exactly like he's been stung by a Griever" Minho states, looking at the black circle mark on his arm with the dark blue veins under his skin.

"A wasp? did you see it?" Harriet asks Hannah

"No, Percy did though, he swore he saw a wasp, said it was big"

"A wasp, as in like? ..."

"As in a wasp Thomas, you know, big, yellow ugly things that sting you on the ass" Minho says to Thomas and Thomas sighs looking to Percy

"The silver vials, with the yellow stuff in it" Newt says looking to Thomas and then Minho

"What?" I ask confused

"It came through the box last week" Minho says

"Fry, go get it" Jackson orders and I remember what they're talking about. They look exactly the same as the Griever vials but the inside was yellow, we just assumed they were the same thing but it looks like Newt had put two and two together. These must be for this wasp Percy spoke of.

"Alright" the cook says, leaving the room with a run  
The serum was inserted into Percy by Jackson as soon as Frypan brought it back and the boy was still asleep by the time we all called it a night and went to bed.

The next morning I woke before Harriet and Sonya and made my way down to the room were using to treat Percy in. I open the creaky wooden door quietly but see Jackson sit up from his seat at Percy's bed.

"Hey" I say closing the door and walking over to him  
He wipes his eyes of sleep and smiles at me

"Sorry for waking you" I say walking up to him, placing my hand on his shoulder

"Hows our patient?" I ask

"The same, he's just sleeping" Jackson says and I look over the boy. He was right, he looked peaceful

"When people usually get stung by Grieves, they go through this thing called the changing" I say

"Yeah I've heard about that" Jackson says and I remove my hand and step closer to Percy

"Yet he's just dreaming, no screaming, no changing, I don't get it"

Jackson looks at me, he was just as stumped and I sigh and grab the spare stool and sit besides him, not knowing what to do other than to just sit and wait for him to wake up.

I spent the day in that room with Jackson watching Percy. We was curious, he was stung by something no one had seen of yet, he was just sleeping and not going through the changing, it was weird. What were WICKED up to?  
We had a few visitors for Percy that day, Sonya and Newt being just two of them. Looks like we were all curious.

As Newt and Sonya were about to leave Andy came through the door with Chris, another Glader. Andy had a guy over his shoulder and he looked dead

"What happened?" I ask, running over to them.

I put my fingers on the guys neck over Andy as he stills for me. Thankfully he has a pulse and I let out a relieved breath

"He got stung" Andy says lying him on the floor.

"Where?" Jackson asks walking over to us all

Jackson gave him the injection on his shoulder where he was stung and we tried to make him as comfortable as possible on the floor with sheets and pillows.  
Now it looked like we had 2 patients to look after.

"We've never had wasps in the glade" I state to Jackson once everyone had left the room

"We do now. Come on, let's go eat, Frypan should be giving out our last meals" Jackson says walking towards the door

"Shouldn't someone come and watch them in case they wake up?" I ask and Jackson shrugs

"We're just going to have to eat fast" he states and we leave the room, heading for the food hut outside.

"Thanks Fry" I say thanking Frypan as he hands me the bowl of pasta. He gives me a warm smile which I return and head for the table with Harriet, Sonya, Newt, Minho and Thomas, putting a hand on Aris' shoulder as I pass him, giving him a smile.

"How's Percy and Billy?" Newts asks after swallowing a mouth full of bread down

"Fine as far as we can tell" I say

"They're just sleeping" Jackson says

"What about the Lighters?" I ask the runners

"Haven't seen one in a while, thankfully" Thomas mutters

"That what they're called now, Lighters?" Jackson asks looking around the shabby built table we were all eating at

"Yeah" Sonya says

"So what we gonna call those wasps? Waspers?" I say getting a smirk from Thomas and Harriet.

"So the guys, they're just sleeping?" Minho asks, looking up from his nearly gone food to look at me. He looked worried.

"Yeah, Percy still haven't woken up" I answer  sadly and Minho nods.

"We need to find out where these wasps are coming from" Newt says

"Well, we all went looking earlier but didn't find anything, we saw a few though" Harriet says, filling me and the runners in on the day in the Glade.

"We're gonna have another look tomorrow, we think they might have a nest in a tree by the lake or deeper in to the woods" Sonya says and Newt nods

"Come on" She then says, putting her hand on Newts arm for a second before pulling away and standing up. Newt grabs his empty dish and stands up

"Where you two going?" Thomas asks

"To sun bathe and talk about the weather" she mocks and Harriet laughs and I smile as they both leave with smiles  
I watch as Thomas smiles after his best friend and I see Harriet smiling at Sonya.  
I stick my thumb out behind my shoulder, pointing to where they have just left

"Are they? ..."  
Thomas smiles, dunking bread into his last bit of pasta sauce, cleaning the bowl. His smile said it all.  
I knew they'de eventually get together.

"A straight couple in the glade, never thought I'd see the day" Harriet says smiling at me and I return it

"Yeah, remember when we never thought we'de see a male!" I say

"Oh yeah, how things have changed" she says with a smile. The place seemed better with males, less boring that was for sure.

Minho and Thomas leave and me and Harriet leave a minute afterwards and head for the showers, Jackson saying it was ok I shower as he can watch the patients. We knew the showers would be empty now the suns down as no one liked showering in the dark, we didn't mind though, more private that way.

 

"So, you think Sonya and Newt are gonna, ya know?" Harriet asks and I sigh

"Maybe, she can tell us all about it tonight" I say as I turn the shower on. I was going to enjoy this

 

"Thought you were with your boyfriend?" I ask when I enter the room behind Harriet.  
Sonya rolls her eyes and smiles

"We just went for a walk around the walls" she says

"And talked about the weather" Harriet mocks and Son kicks her lightly

"No, we talked, about us" she says

"What about you both?" I ask sitting besides her on the mattresses

"About how everyone will react to their being an us"

"So it's official?" Harriet asks looking like she's about to jump around the room in excitement causing Sonya to smile shyly as she nods and I hug her

"The first official glade couple, oh man, we need to celebrate!" I say

"Perfect excuse for a party, good idea Lexi" Harriet says full of excitement and I curtsey, the best I can sitting down

"No, no party!" Sonya says sternly but me and Harriet share a mischevious smile

 

I spent the rest of the next day with Jackson watching over Percy and Billy.  
Just before the guys returned Percy woke up.  
I was sat right next to his bed when he did.  
He seemed tired and groggy for a while and I grabbed him some food as he told me and Jackson what had happened. That he was just walking across the Glade when a wasp landed on his arm. He was too stunned to think for a while and then suddenly it stung him and flew away.

"I thought wasps die when they sting you, how could it fly away?" I ask

"I never thought of that" Jackson admits

"How long was I out?" Percy asks

"About a day, you have any memories return or anything?" Jackson asks the man now he's feeling better. He shakes his head

"Just, just a bad dream" he admits looking sorrowful

"Of what?" I ask intrigued. This guy had no memories, this is his first time in a maze, what's he dreaming about

"About being the last man here, watching everyone go into the maze and not return" he says giving me and Jackson a sorrowful look.


	12. Chapter 12

"Hey Lexi, how's Percy doing?" Newt asks me, limping up to me as I head towards the homestead after our last meal of the day.

"Hey Newt, He seems fine, experienced no pain, just slept, said he just had a bad dream" I say

"A bad dream?"

"Yeah"

"Huh, strange, but no memories?"

"Nope, So, you broke the news to anyone yet?" I ask as we get closer to the homestead. He looks at me, half alarmed, half trying not to blush and smile, he fails, miserably and looks down smiling

"Erm, no, not yet. Thomas kinda guessed though. Minho knows too" he says and I smile

"You look after that girl else I'm chasing you down with a shovel!" I say playfully and he smiles

"But I'm really happy for you both" I add

"Thanks" he says smiling up at me shyly and I smile and nudge him

"This place could do with some happy couples" I state looking around at the Glade. There were only a few people walking around, most people were in the homestead, others lying in their hammocks, chatting quietly, covered in a wall of mosquito nets worried about the wasps that only a few had seen.

"Yeah, I guess. Kinda wish Teresa would turn up"

"Were she and Thomas, a thing?" I ask. I wouldn't be surprised, Thomas was a good looking guy

"No, but given time I think they could have been" he says and I nod and we head inside, Newt holding the door open for me. Minho was half way up the stairs with Thomas as we entered the building. We meet them at the top of the stairs and I see Harriet and Sonya coming out of the room, Sonya with her bag.

"What's going on?" I ask confused

"Erm, I'm moving out" Sonya says a little reluctantly. Harriet smiles at me, confusing me even further

"What, where you going to sleep?" I ask and she looks at Newt and looks down

"Oh" I say and my smile grows wide

"Yep, this guys leaving us, for a chick" Minho says, eyeing Newt with a playful glare and Newt rolls his eyes, patting him on the shoulder

"Thomas can keep you warm" he jokes and Minho arcs a brow with a smile and looks to Thomas and Thomas winks

"Not in a million years, shuck-face" Minho says, pushing Thomas away

"Come on" Sonya says to Newt with a smile

"Heel be back" Minho says jokingly serious as they walk down the rackety stairs to the small back room they are now going to share

"Heel always be back" Thomas mutters and me and Harriet roll our eyes and Harriet says goodnight heading inside and I follow her in after smiling to the guys.

 

"Sonya not taken her mattress?" I ask as I eye the 3 mattresses.

"Nope, I assume she's sharing Newt's" Harriet says as I start undressing to get into bed

"Dirty" I say causing Harriet to laugh

 

 

Another day, another month, another greenie. I don't bother with the new people much, I prefer to sit back, I remembered what it was like, coming up in that box having people stare down at you. I noticed some of the boys wasn't as welcoming as the girls and I knew it was a girl coming up this month, if the pattern stays the same anyway, in this place anything could happen.

we now had a med hut built not far from the homestead though it was only small. 4 beds and plenty of storage shelves. 

I sat by the lake, carving another arrow. I wanted a bunch of these things ready for the day we leave this place. I planned on making more bows for people too and doing archery classes. Harriet had already been doing her fighting classes for about 8 months now.

The new greenie was a girl though at first I wasn't too sure. Her hair was really short, even for a girl. Harriet and Aris showed her around, she seemed calm from my spot on the floor on the other side, a lot calmer than most of us when we come up but by the looks of things she clearly has a lot of questions. My stomach grumbles, telling me it's nearly dinner time and that the runners should be having their breaks in the maze. 

As I'm looking over the Glade I hear a slight buzzing. I pick it up straight away and then I see it, a wasp flying just an inch above the water to the lake. I stop what I'm doing and lean forward, looking at it the best I can. It was bigger than a wasp should be, I knew that much. It was also black, with something yellow on it's back, just looked like a smudge of colour from where I sat. I put my arrow down next to my bow and creep forward. Maybe I can follow this thing and find out where their damn nest is. I stay crouched by the lake for a few minutes, watching it just hover there until it suddenly starts flying away. I get up and start following it, walking quietly, keeping my eyes peeled and only focused on the wasp. Thankfully it was black and the size of my big toe so it wasn't exactly hard to miss flying through the sunny glade, as long as I kept close and my eyes on the thing. I followed it through a small patch of trees and across the farm. It landed on a cow, the animal didn't even budge like it hadn't even noticed it.

"What are you doing?" Someone asks me but I don't even look up, all I notice is it's a girls voice, One I don't recognise.

"Following this thing, hopefully it can take me to it's friends" I state and risk a quick glance to the girl. It was Stacy, she's been here a while now, one of the first girls to come up that we didn't know. She doesn't say anything else and the cow moves, making the thing fly away and I follow again. I thought I lost it when I hit the other side of the Glade but I spot it in the green canvas around it as it lands on a tree on the edge of the woods. I edge closer, being as quiet as possible and get as close to the large thing as I can. When I'm only a foot away I can see the yellow smudge come into focus. It wasn't a yellow smudge, it was letters; WCKD

I should have known.

My breath wasn't heavy but I was close enough for the thing to hear me but it stayed there, on the tree for a long time. I stepped back and looked at the trees. Maybe it's nest was round here, it's where we all thought, it made the most sense.  
Looking back I notice the wasp had gone and I decide to head inside the trees before it gets dark. I might be able to find something.  
I walk around for a good 10 minutes, not finding anything when I hear a buzzing near my ear and flinch away, flinging my hand by my ear and twirl, not seeing anything when I feel a slight sting on my neck. I slap my neck instantly, feeling the thing on my hand. It felt nothing like I thought it would. It was squishy, almost like what the Grievers were made of. There were no hairs or nasty stuff. Just goo and metal legs and a metal stinger, still stuck in my neck.  
I feel dizzy but I pull the thing away and out of my skin and look at it, pinched tightly between my finger and thumb.  
It's little metal legs are moving, it's wings, paper like yet thick with veins like on a leaf were hitting against my fingers, the thing trying to fly away.  
I yank it's wings off and start running towards the med-jack hut, knowing I was about to pass out for the day but at least I had something to show for it.

"Stacy!" I yell, running closer to the animals, seeing her blonde hair. I felt sick and my eyes were getting heavy, my ears stinging and my neck pulsed with a sting every few seconds and my back was getting covered in sweat. I knew I wouldn't last running to the other side of the Glade to Jackson.

"Get Jackson to me now, I've been stung!"

She was off, not having to question anything and as I got closer, the wasp still wiggling to get free from my tight grip I clasp harder, the goo squishing, moulding to my fingers and fist. It felt disgusting but I didn't want to let it go.  
I was still a good distance from the Homestead when I saw Jackson run through the door, Stacy right behind him.

"Lexi?"

"I.."

I couldn't shout anything else. I felt weary and had to stop running. I nearly fall over and I grab my head with my other hand trying so hard to stay awake and aware.  
Jackson runs up to me, steadying me with his hands on my upper arms.

"You got stung?" I nod and grab his hand

"I caught the bastard" I say with a smile. Jackson looks at our hands as I pass it him.  
The thing was moving like mad but Jackson gripped it before it could wiggle off his hand and he smiles

"Nice, come on lets get you inside before you pass out"

"Yeah" I say

I passed out before we reached the threshold yet I was glad for the darkness to take me away from the stinging in my eyes, ear and neck and from the feeling of wanting to throw up. And I dreamed.

 

I was running, I turn around to see everyone, all the gladers, Sonya and Newt, Harriet, Aris, more of the girls and more of the guys, Thomas, Frypan, Minho and Jackson.  
We were at the cliff.

"Go!" Someone yells and I jump, right down the greaver hole and into that familiar room.  
Thomas and Harriet are at the door, punching in the codes as I stand guard, watching more friends jumping down the hole.

"It's open, let's go!" Harriet yells for us all to start crowding out of the room.  
The room we ran into I had never seen before, just plain white walls and concrete floors. A woman stood in the middle of the room. Blonde hair tied up tightly, a white lab type coat on and plain clothes. She smiled and welcomed us into the room.

"Who are you?"

"Where are we?"

"What have you done to us?"

Questions from the Gladers filled the room before she held her hands up to silence everyone

"I want to congratulate you all, you have defeated the maze, twice!"  
More shouts as people burst into questions and threats though the woman just smiled, she didn't even seem scared there were a bunch of nearly 30 teenagers and young adults in the room, threatening to smash her head in

"Now it's time for the third Maze"  
Suddenly I'm in a dark place I recognise all too well. I'm in the lift, alone. And I'm heading up towards the glade, for the third time. I scream, I bang on the cage but there was no one to hear me and no one to save me.

Voices, there were voices but it didn't sound like anything, almost like the words were all coming out together, sounding like a soft hum in the background as everything started to slowly come into focus.  
The first thing I see is a figure, tall, towering above me, big broad shoulders, large arms crossed over a chest, dark hair, half of their face hidden from my view. It was Minho. I blink, clearing my vision a little more. He was nodding towards the voice but I couldn't concentrate, I felt dizzy and closed my eyes shut tight when suddenly my ears ring and I can make out a word

"Lexi... Lexi!"

I open my eyes again to see Minho leaning over me and I figured I was in the med hut.  
I smile and his features soften

"Are you here to take me over to the other side?" I ask, my voice soft, cracked and weak like it hadn't been used in years.  
He smiles, shaking his head

"Yeah, I left my black cloak and psyche in hell" he says and I laugh, relieved to be awake and see a friendly face.


	13. Chapter 13

"Welcome back" I hear and turn to see Newt stood at the end of the bed, then I notice Thomas and Andy and notice how sweaty and tired they all look.

"You guys just got back?" I ask pushing myself up into a sitting position.

"Bout half hour ago, how you feeling?" Thomas asks from his position on a stool across the room

"Awful" I say then laugh

"I really need a drink" I say and Jackson comes into view from behind a shelf unit to my right and I watch as he pours some water into a jar for me and hands it over to me

"Thank you" I say and take a few long gulps and then take a breath.

"See you caught one" Newt says, holding up the black wasp in his hands. It was no longer squirming to get away from it's hold

"It dead?" I ask

"Just, disarmed" Thomas says and Minho steps back giving me more room on the bed to look around

"Why are you all in here? You should be eating" I say and they all smile

"Always the thoughtful one huh stick" Minho says and I smile

"We ate in here, knew'd you'd wake up soon" Thomas says and I smile, a warmth washing over me and I can't stop the huge smile on my face. These guys were my new friends, they cared and it was really really nice to know I had more friends, people I could call my family.

"It's been a day already?" I ask, only feeling like I had napped

"You have slept through it remember" Newt says with a smirk and I laugh

"Oh yeah, man I feel like I could sleep another day or two" I say stretching and yawning.

"Stacy said you were following this little guy" Andy says nodding to the wasp in Newts hand still

"Yeah, I was sat at the lake when it just flew by the water, followed it to the trees on the north east corner, thought I could follow it to see where the guys were camping out" I state and then drink some more water

"And?" Newt asks

"I looked around but couldn't find any nest or anything, then that little bastard stung me on the neck" I say giving the thing evils

"You're not the only one that's been stung today" Jackson says, nodding to the make shift bed on the other side of the room

"Aris!" I mutter sadly

"He ok?" I ask worried and they all smile

"He's fine, got given the serum, now he's sleeping" I nod happy he's ok

 

"You experience the same as Percy and Billy?" Jackson asks

"Err, yeah, just felt dizzy, little pulsing pain where I was stung but nothing to complain about, and ..." I look down remembering the dream, no nightmare

"And what?" Minho asks

"A really shitty dream" I state looking at them all

"Huh, same as the others, looks like 2 a day are being stung, we only have 12 vials of serum left" Jackson says

"Lets hope they send up some every week with supplies" Andy says crossing his arms

"Yeah, I don't want to know what could happen if they don't get a serum" Jackson says making the room fall in to a solemn silence, until Minho claps his hands together, getting everyone's attention.

"Alright, Now that happy hours over...let's move on shall we before I die of depression" he states sarcastically to brighten up the mood and I smile at him

"Thanks guys, was pretty cool waking up to you lot here with me" I state not wanting to sound too soppy and they all smile

"We wanted to thank you for catching this bloody bugger, it's not real, it's mechanical" newt says and I nod

"I thought it was, it's made out of the gloopy stuff like the Grievers" I state

"Take the battery out and it turns off" Newt says and I stand up. My legs felt a little weak but they could hold my weight fine. I take the thing from Newt and I look at the underneath of the thing.  
There was a slice up it's middle, barely noticeable with the rubber type texture being black. Pull it apart and there's a pill shaped metal thing inside. I pull it out to see it had a small thin hole in the middle where something must have been. I look up at Newt and he holds up a thin piece of metal

"The battery?"  
He nods

"Jackson" A voice says, the door opening and Frypan walks in, holding the newest Glader so she doesn't fall to the ground.

"Brenda's been stung!"

  
Brenda took the bed as she passed out moments after getting there. Thomas taking her from him and laying her down.  
Jackson inserted the serum in to her arm near where she got stung and the guys made me leave the room although I wanted to stay with Aris, he's due to wake up soon.

"He will be fine" Minho says as we get in to the main room in the homestead and I nod knowing Jackson would be there for him.  
Although I'm sure he'd appreciate a welcome back party like I did.

"If Jacksons theory is right then another person could get stung, the day isn't over yet" Thomas says

"Then lets stay inside" Newt suggests.

 

Aris spoke about his dream over dinner the next day after he had woken up. Saying it was his biggest fear come true, watching as Racheal was killed because of him and he was left in the middle of the maze, alone, holding her dead body. It sounded horrible but his words got me thinking.  
Percys nightmare was being left alone here, Billy never mentioned his but said he didn't want to speak about it. Aris' sounded like his deepest fear and my night mare, it scared the hell out of me, that would be the worst thing to ever happen, to escape just to end up back here yet again.

"I think your words ring truer than you think" I say catching every one around the dinner table by surprise as they look at me

"What do you mean?" Aris asks

"About it being your biggest fear coming true, I think that's what the dreams are, the things we are most afraid to happen to us" I state and we all stay silent for a minute

"You could be right, but why would WICKED make those things to do that?" Newt asks everyone

"Who knows, why'd they even build this place and stick us here?" Harriet asks. More questions that couldn't be answered.

 

 

"They found it!" Billy yells from somewhere in the Glade and I stand from where I am, pulling out weeds from the farm a few hours later. Jackson made me get out of the med hut, saying I needed to catch some sun else I'd be in there with Brenda and Emily, the second girl to gets stung. I was happy to get out, as much as I liked being a medic I also enjoyed doing other jobs.  
10 minutes later we are all crowded at the small hill in the north east tree area of the Glade.  
In the hill, where no one would really think of looking was a hole, and in that hole were the wasps.

"How do we go about this?" Sonya asks Harriet

"Maybe we could burn it, the trees aren't that close, it could just work" Harriet says

"No ones been stung yet" I point out, so people knew someone could get stung if we bother them

"Then two people better prepare for it" Sonya says and I smile

"We've heard that before" Frypan says and we all look at him confused.

"The day we escaped the maze, the first one, we thought only one Glader would die, because of the nightly Glader attacks" he shakes his head looking down

"I don't know how many we lost, but it was a lot more than one" he says solemnly and we all share looks

"This isn't escaping the maze, this is taking out a damn nest of robotic insects, we will be fine" Harriet reassures everyone

"Should we wait till the runners return, ask their opinion?" I ask

"They ain't due back for another.." Harriet checks the sun and shrugs and I roll my eyes looking at my watch

"3 hours" I say

"Exactly, I say we burn this thing now, might save a sting or two" She says, having a very valid point

"Alright, Frypan, got anything flammable?" I ask with a smile

Burning the nest was a success, only half of the damn wasps got torched though, the other half flying far away, most over the walls. 2 people got stung and me and Jackson watched the sleeping victims. I cringed as I watched, knowing they'de be having horrible dreams, if not now then tonight.  
Brenda had been awake for an hour or two and she stayed there chatting to us on a chair until she fell to sleep in it, leaving me and Jackson watching over 3 sleeping bodies. I learnt I liked Brenda, she was pretty, smart, fun to talk to. She had a sense of humour and I knew I wanted her as a friend in this place, even if I had told myself no more friends.

Serah comes in to the med room to watch over the patients and to let us eat dinner. I wake Brenda and we sit with Frypan, Winston, Aris, Harriet and Sonya. Brenda seemed to get along with everyone and we told her about our journey in the other maze we was in before this. It helped keep our minds off the things happening in the Glade.

I sat with Brenda at the lake after dinner, Brenda was doing guard duty but Hannah took over so she had the afternoon free and I fancied starting on another bow so I could start training someone on it.  
Brenda ended up starting to make her own, asking if I could train her on it so I was happy to hear that then when it came to an hour before the door closing we saw a wasp. They weren't quite gone yet so we pack up and head inside the homestead. I said she could bring her blanket and sleep in the room with me and Harriet, I didn't want her getting stung again. Harriet didn't seem to mind.

That morning during breakfast, Minho, Thomas, Newt and Andy wasn't there, already heading out an hour before, the room was peaceful until only half of us were left, breakfast nearly being over when Jackson entered the room, asking people about their necks.

"What's going on?" Harriet asks no one in particular as we watch Jackson walk around the room, pulling down the back of peoples shirts at their necks to look at things.

"I don't know" I say and suddenly Jackson catches my eye and walks over to me and pulls my hair aside, looking at the back of my neck and then he's quiet, the opposite of how he was just, telling people to show him their necks.

"What's wrong?" I ask Jackson as he lets my hair fall. I bring my hand up to my neck, expecting to feel something but there was nothing.

"We all have like, tattoos, I noticed it on Max in the med shack, we all have names tattooed on to the back of our necks"

"What, who's names?" I ask

Jackson turns around and I stand to get a closer look as he pushes his hair aside with one hand and lowers his shirt with the other showing me my name in nice fluid writing across the back of his neck.  
My eyes widen and I touch his skin where my name is written.

  
_Alexa_

"You have my name on your neck" He states moving away and turning to face me.

I look at Harriet and Sonya

"What do yours say?" I ask

"Sonia says Winston and mine says Percy" Harriet states

"What does it mean?" I ask looking around, realising the Gladers were all talking in pairs, boy girl, clearly all finding their named person on their neck, others leaving to find them.

"What the hell?!"

 

 

Me and Sonya wait at the west door that Newt had ran through, curious to see what name he had.  
Serah had Newts name on her neck and Sonya wasn't happy about it.

"Why do we all have the opposite sex's names on our necks? it doesn't make sense! I mean I like Winston but what, are we meant to kill each other, be a pair for something that's going to happen in the future? fall in fucking love?" She asks aggravated

"I don't know what it means, hopefully none of them" I state worryingly.

I was curious about it all but at the moment the only thing on my mind was who was on Minho's neck. So far from what the Gladers are saying it always goes in pairs, if your name was on them then theirs was on you but I hadn't heard anyone saying they had Minho's name on them, why did that even bother me? either way I wanted to find out!


	14. Chapter 14

Newt arrived and smiled at the welcome back party waiting for him from me and Sonya. She just goes straight for his neck then pulls away, annoyance on her face at seeing Serah's name on his skin.

"Sonya, what's wrong?" Newt asks, rubbing his neck looking confused. She shows him her tattoo of Winston's name and we fill him in on the walk to the homestead. We wait for the others, Andy arriving first. A minute later Thomas arrived and Newt checks out his neck.

"Oh .. klunk" Newt whispers, pulling away from Thomas like he had seen a ghost on his neck

"What, whose name is it, Newt?" Thomas asks turning to look at his friends

"It's .. Teresa's" Newt says

Thomas' face drops

"How, how's that possible, she isn't even here!" He says confused, hurt. He sits down against the wall, deep in thought, no longer talking to us when Minho walks in. His eyebrows raise

"What's going on?" He asks looking alarmed.

I walk up to him and pull his top down at his neck. He jumps away and I sigh

"Just let me look at your neck" I say going for him again and, this time, he stills, looking at everyone like I had lost it

"Who's name he got?" Andy asks

"Amy" I say, not recognising the name

"Name, w-what?" Minho pulls away and looks at everyone like they're all mad, no longer just me.

"Someone want to explain what the hell is going on?" He asks and we all fill him in.

"They weren't there yesterday .. was they?" Minho asks looking to the ground in thought once we had explained it

"I don't think so" Newt says and I look at Thomas worried, he's still just sat up the wall in his own little bubble.

"What's it mean?" Minho asks

"We don't know" Sonya states annoyed.

Minho then looks at me and nods his head as he asks

"Who you got?"

"Jackson"

He nods then looks to Thomas

"Thomas?" He says, clearly noticing his friends pulling back from the conversation. Thomas doesn't answer him.

"He ok?" Minho asks everyone

"He got Teresa" Newt explains

"Oh" Minho goes up to Thomas and kneels in front of him and puts his hand on his knee. Thomas looks up at his best friend, his eyes clouded with something

"We'll figure this out, I promise, come on man, get up" Minho says making Thomas snap back to reality. He nods and stands up

"Look it doesn't matter what it means, it's just a name, I'm sure we will find out eventually, for now, let's just concentrate on cracking the code and getting out of here!" Minho says taking charge and the room fills with nods

"Alright, guys what you find today?" Newt asks, changing the conversation to the numbers and me and Sonya leave, leaving them to it.

"Who's Amy?" I ask as we leave the room with enough distance and Sonya smirks

"Jealousy can be a destructive emotion Lexi" She warns and I scowl

"I'm not jealous! how would you know anyway?" I ask

"Another girl has my boyfriends name tattooed on her damn neck" She says and I smile

"She didn't ask for it, besides you have Winston on yours" I say and she shrugs

"Like Minho said, it doesn't matter, the reason behind it will come into light eventually, until then let's just pretend they ain't even there" She says

"Amen to that!"  

 

During the last meal of the day sat with the regulars, including Winston, Alex and Aris, and now Brenda it's mostly quiet for once, were usually all laughing about something someone said about now but it's just quiet. I keep noticing a girl stare over at our table every now and then. She was thin, small in stature, looked about 17, a few years younger than me anyhow. Long light brown hair, up in a piece of string. I wondered what she was looking at at first but then I realised. She's looking at Minho, Minho hadn't even seemed to notice, too occupied by happily filling his stomach.

"You ever spoke to that girl before?" I ask Minho over Harriet who's sat between us. Minho looks at me, then to where I'm looking. The girl wasn't looking at the moment, being pulled away by someone talking to her. Minho squints his eyes then looks back to his food

"Nope, should I?" He asks glancing my way and I shake my head

"No, she just, keeps staring at you" I say looking back to my food. Minho looks at her again then back to his food with a simple shrug

"I've noticed, she must be whoever is tattooed on his neck" Brenda says and I give the girl another look. So she's Amy?.

 

"You heard about Frypan and Hannah" Brenda asks catching me by surprise a week later

"No, what about em?" I ask

"Apart from them having their names tattooed on each other" I add as I blow on my bow near completion after we had been spending a few days on them.

"They're together, Sonya and Newt aren't the only couple in the Glade" She says and I look at her

"20 minutes we have been sat here and you're only telling me this now" I say with a raised brow and she shrugs with a mischievous smile and I roll my eyes

"Thought you would have heard" She says knifing at her piece of wood which is slowly starting to resemble a bow.

"Nah, so what, the names, are they.." I can't seem to finish the thought out loud

"What? your partner to be, hell maybe.. can't see Sonya being too happy about that" Brenda says

"Well, Newt said Thomas and Teresa would have ended up together, whoever she is so that makes sense" I say and then think of Jackson. He was kind, a good friend, I enjoyed spending hours at a time with him in the med room and he was good looking. But then I think of what Sonya said about jealousy and think of Minho. Was he really meant to be with that small girl called Amy? Minho could lift her up with one hand and probably spin her above his head and launch her over the damn maze walls. OK so I was being a little over the top but he's, at least, a whole foot taller than her and triple her width. I just couldn't imagine it, but she was pretty. Ugh why do I care, it's not like I fancy Minho... I huff, annoyed at my stupid thoughts. Of course, I liked Minho, he was funny, he made me smile and he's done a lot for me since we got here. He showed in ways he cared about me and yes, I had a major crush on the guy since the first time I saw him, I was just too busy losing my shit to realise just how hot he was. Ugh. Least I know I wasn't a lesbian before I got here. I laugh at the thought and Brenda questions it

"Just thinking what if I was a lesbian" I half lie and she laughs

"Then clearly it would be my name tattooed onto your neck and not Jacksons" she says and I smile and wink at her playfully and she blows me a kiss and we both laugh together and for a few minutes, I'm actually happy

We hear shouting across the Glade and I look up to see Harriet giving a girl a piggy back, or at least it looked like that until I really looked, noticing the people around her looked worried and the girl on her back was passed out

"Another sting attack" Brenda says sadly.

After another hour perfecting my bow and attaching the string I help Brenda with hers then she heads inside while I head to the med hut to see if Jackson wanted any help.

Inside I see Jackson sat beside the girl in the bed, His hands in his lap as he looks at her

"Hey" I say announcing my arrival

"Oh hey" he says looking at me before back to the girl

"Need any help?" I ask

"Nah, just another sting, had to stitch up Winston's new chopper apprentice, he's going to have a nasty scar" He says and I smile and close the door behind me

"Well how about company then?" I ask pulling a chair and sitting next to him

"Sounds good, how are things out there?" he asks

"Same as always, weathers painfully perfect, those wasps are still flying around, the usual" I shrug and he smiles and looks back to the girl

"Shit, Hannah" I say only just looking at the girl properly

"Yeah, stung on the head, she passed out straight away, she's fine, though, someone was there to catch her, she's just sleeping" he says and I nod.

"Hannah's tough as nails" I state and he smiles

"Heard Frypan got with her today" Jackson says and I nod

"Yeah, where is he, thought he'd be here with her" I ask

"He's currently cooking dinner, said he knows she's in good hands" Jackson says and I smile

"Frypan, he's a good'un" I say fondly

We sat there another half an hour, chatting idly about people and the Glade until Minho pops through the door, an unconscious Thomas draped over his shoulder, Newt right behind them.  
Minho drops Thomas softly on one of the free beds and I rush over to the 3 guys.

"What happened?" I ask as I watch Minho collapse to the floor, on his knees and elbows catching his breath looking exhausted.

"Thomas got stung in the maze" Newt says, Minho clearly too physically tired to talk at the moment.

"I saw Minho with Thomas over his back as they came out of the maze, I was waiting for them. If they had been another 3 minutes we wouldn't have gotten him back in time" Newt says and I look at Thomas before back to my other friends as Jackson comes over with the serum in his hands.  
He lifts Thomas' top to stick it to his side where he was stung, the dark veins making it easy to find.

"Thank god he has you guys" I state staring at Minho worried

"We can't ... keep running .... in twos" Minho says between breaths then he pushes himself up and leans back still on his knees looking to the ceiling to breath better.  
He looked knackered after dragging Thomas through the maze.

"It's too dangerous, first the Lighters, now Wasps are in the maze" Minho says and Newt nods

"Here man" Jackson says, passing Minho some water which the runner takes gratefully with a quick nod before devouring the jug full in seconds, wiping his mouth with a satisfied ahh before passing it to Jackson

"I'm gonna need a refill" he says and Jackson nods, refilling the jug with more water

"Thanks" he mutters, drinking slower this time then I get up and pour Newt a jar, he looked like he needed a drink too

"Thanks, Lexi"

10 minutes later were all still in the room. Jackson bringing us the food with Frypan. The cook was currently sat at Hannah's bed with Jackson while me Minho and Newt stayed with Thomas.  
It had been silent for a while as we sat there, thinking about the dangers of running the maze alone, with more than one enemy out there to get you. I finally speak up, softly, I didn't want to accidentally wake Thomas though I doubt he would wake for anything at the moment.

"We need more runners" I state

"Don't even suggest what I know you're gonna suggest!" Minho says staring at me with a warning in his eyes

"Harriet, Sonya and me, we used to be runners and we're stronger together-"

"No!, We can't force people to run, and you're not going back out there, you really think Harriets gonna be able to drag you out of there, what if you reach your time to turn around and then you get stung, huh? she won't get half way back by the time those doors close, especially if she bumps into a Lighter! I barely made it out with Thomas, I was shattered just dragging him 10 minutes through the maze and to this room, even with Newts help! It's. Not. Happening!" Minho says the last three words with anger and no room for me to argue, making it final.  
I huff and stand up, pissed off at how he's ordering me around and the way he just spoke to me. No one had spoken to me like that before, as far as I knew.

"Fine, whatever" I say not wanting to argue with Minho and I head for the door

"Lexi?" Jackson says and I look at him, he looked concerned.  
I just leave the hut, ignoring him but he chases after me and runs in front of me, stopping me from going any further than 10 feet.

"Hey, are you ok?"

"I'm fine" I take a deep breath and push my hair back from my face

"Just, need to get away from him for a bit" I state, still angry, I hated how he made me feel like a little girl sometimes like he thought I was weak.

"He can't boss you around like that so, why do you let him?" He asks and I look at him annoyed

"I don't!" I say

"You do, Lexi, you just walked out, not even arguing with him, you just gave up, listened to him telling you no and you accepted it!"

"What else can I do? he's the keeper of the runners, he decides, along with Newt who runs and if they don't want me running there's nothing I can do about it" I say annoyed and he gives me a sad smile

"Then work with me, officially, every day. That way if they come in here injured from the maze you can say 'I told you so' and get revenge"

I laugh, finally feeling a little better

"Plus I'll know you're safe" he says with a soft smile

"Ok" I nod  
Jacksons smile widens

"Alright, now go and get some sleep, you're gonna need your energy for watching the stingers and fixing up the slicers" I smile at Jackson, grateful he chased after me to cheer me up

"Thank you Jackson" I say and he smiles as I go in for a hug.

"No problem" He gives me a reassuring squeeze before we pull apart "I'll see you tomorrow" He says and heads back towards the med room and I realise just how dedicated to the people here he really is, he's always in that damn room looking after people. He was a great guy.


	15. Chapter 15

Lying in bed, Harriets back pushed up against my side as I stare at the ceiling, I can hear Brenda's soft breathes in the dark as I lie there. I couldn't sleep at first. My mind just kept racing, thinking of everything that's happened since we got here. The new people, the light monsters, the wasps, the names, so many new things happening, it was scary, things were happening that were out of our control. And Minho, he still hadn't come back from the med room yet and everyone had come to bed an hour ago. I was worried about him, as a runner he needs his sleep more than anyone. I couldn't forget the way he spoke to me though but I was glad I didn't fight back. I care for Minho, more than I should. I couldn't let myself get close, what if he dies, anything could happen. I then think of Harriet and Sonya, my two best friends, they kept me sane in the last maze. God even Brenda was my friend now, either way I had people I cared about that I could lose, I cared for Minho if I liked it or not so those thoughts were pointless. I turn, spooning Harriet to gain some comfort to try and help me sleep. Her presence was familiar, welcoming and I close my eyes cuddling the leader, my best friend. Tomorrow I would apologise to Minho, as much as I knew it should be him apologising to me. I didn't want to lose any more friends, I barely had any as it was.

The next day after eating I went with Jackson to the medical room and watched over Hannah and Thomas. Newt, Minho and Andy all went running, according to Aris they all went through the same door together, each turning left together. Maybe there running in 3s today as Thomas is out of comission for the day. Either way I think the guy could do with a rest with what Frypan has been telling me about Thomas and their old Glade days to pass the time.

Hannah woke up first, like we knew she would, they always woke up exactly after 24 hours Jackson had figured out, it was easy to figure out really. So we knew Thomas should wake up roughly about 15 minutes before Newt and the other runners returned. I'd prefer to be out of here at that time but I had to set things straight with Minho. I didn't exactly like the prospect of being a runner but I wanted to help and if Minho didn't want my help then fine, end of thought process. I smiled watching Frypan and Hannah together. They were practically best friends even before their names were on each others necks and now they were a couple.

"How about we throw a party tonight to celebrate the two happy couples" I say to Frypan

"I don't know" Frypan says sounding weary of the idea

"Aww come on, we haven't celebrated in a while, I think it's a great idea" Hannah says then kissed Frypan on the lips and I look away, feeling like I'm witnessing some very private act. I see Jackson smiling at the two though and then we share a smile for them

"Fine" Frypan says when they pull away and I jump on my seat excitedly

"Yay, Newt and Sonya will be pleased" I say and Hannah smiles at me

"How long do you think they will last?" Frypan asks curiously

"What?" I ask suddenly confused by his question

"Newt and Sonya, they don't share names" Frypan says sadly

"What, you think the names mean you're actually destined to end up with that person?" I ask, saying it out loud it made it sound even more absurd

"Thomas has Teresa's name, me and Hannah have each other, I'm not the only one that thinks that, a lot of people do" Frypan says and I frown

"Well I don't believe it and neither do the runners" I state folding my arms and Hannah sighs

"I hope it does, for once it'd be nice if WICKED were actually doing something good for us, ya know, giving us a sign that if you find this person you'll be happy, it gives us all hope, why else would there be both boys and girls in this place now?" Hannah asks sounding sure she's right, I share a look with Jackson, even he's listening to this bull crap. Then I look away from him. He has my name, I have his. Am I really meant to end up with Jackson. It wouldn't be a bad thing, if Minho wasn't here but I can't un-meet Minho, he was here and he was who I secretly wanted to have my name on his skin, mine and no one elses. Great, now I feel like crap. Thomas wakes up with a jolt making me and Jackson rush over to him,  He sat up straight and looked around alarmed, like he was about to get attacked.

"Hey you're ok, just a bad dream" I tell him, rushing to his side, kneeling by his head besides the bed we had put him in. Thomas looks around the room again and finally starts to calm down

"Everyone was, they , you, were all dead, it was all my fault" Thomas exhales loudly and grabs his head. Shit this guy had a worse nightmare than I thought possible.

 

"Were alive and nothings your fault" I say and Thomas drops his hands, he nods telling me he's ok and knows, I just guess the dream shook him up a bit. Thomas grabs his water from Jackson and squeezes his eyes shut for a few seconds shaking his head

"Man, remind me to never get stung by one of those things again" he says and I smile, happy to see hes ok

"You make it sound like you have a choice" I state playfully

"I thought I was a dead man, I passed out in the maze, Minho dragged me out of there?" he asks

"Yeah" I say and Thomas smiles

"I should have known" His smile was contagious and we were all smiling with him

"They should be back soon, guessing they'll come straight here to see you" Jackson says and Thomas nods, continuing to throw back his drink

"Maybe you should take a break for a bit, you've been in this room all day watching Thomas" Jackson says and I shake my head. I knew straight away he was trying to give me an excuse to get out of here before Minho got here but I smiled at him and declined

"Its ok, I need to speak to Minho anyway" I say and Jackson looks at me like it's a bad idea but before he can question it Thomas speaks up

"You sat in here all day watching me?" He asks I smile

"What can I say, I'm secretly in love with you" I tease and he snorts and I smile

"Nah, I'm a med-jack , it's my job to watch you, and you're my friend" I say and he nods

"Admirable" I nod along with him and we both smile. Thomas passes me his jar and gets up

"What you doing?" I ask

"I've been asleep all day, I need to use the bathroom before I lose control of my bladder" he says and I laugh and watch him leave.

"You gonna make that slint-head apologise or something?" Jackson asks, quiet enough so Frypan, Hannah and Thomas who were all leaving together couldn't hear

"No, I'm going to apologise to him, at the end of the day he's the boss so-"

"No, from where I'm standing, Newt and Harriet run this place with the help of Thomas and Sonya, Minho is no boss" He says

"Not a boss, no! but he's keeper of the runners, the most important job their is in this place, you know that, his word is law when it comes to running, he's the best runner and besides he's right, if something happens in there I wouldn't be able to drag someone out of there and fight off Lighters along the way, it's dangerous so it's fine" I say and Jackson sighs

"He should be apologising to you for speaking to you like that, yes, I'm grateful he doesn't want you running out there because it's life or death but he can't boss you around, you're not a runner"

"But I was"

"And now you're a med-jack, with me, so make him apologise and then just forget it" He says and I sigh

"Hes my friend Jax, I'm not gonna be a douche and fall out with him over something stupid" Jackson just smiles

"What?"

"You called me Jax"

"It's easier than saying Jackson" I say and he chuckles

"I like it" I roll my eyes thought I was grateful we was no longer talking about Minho. Jacksons about to open his mouth to speak again when the door opens and Winston and Serah are bringing in a sting victim. From how small the girl is and her long hair I notice who it is straight away

"Amy?" I ask wanting reassurance it actually was Amy.

"Yeah, found her by the showers, I don't know how long she's been out" Serah says

Winston puts her on the bed and Jackson looks her over as I go over to the box at the side of the room to get the silver vial filled with yellow liquid, the serum to stop the poison in her body. There was only 4 left after this one. I see the veins on the inside of her right elbow and Jackson holds her arm for me to inject it into her. I place it above the sting mark and push the button at the top and the liquid floods into her blood stream, thinking of how Jackson had to do that to me made me cringe a little.

"Will she be ok?" Winston asks looking down at the sleeping girl

"She should be, I'll let you know if anything happens" Jackson says looking to Serah and Winston

"Ok, thanks" Serah says and she pulls Winston out of the room as Jackson pours himself a drink, knowing there really is nothing we can do but make sure she's comfortable and just watch her so I sit on the poorly made wooden stool besides her bed and look at her. Her hair was lose instead of in the knotted string it usually is. She still had colour in her cheeks and she honestly just looked like she was sleeping peacefully, like she wasn't in a hospital bed, technically. She really was thin, the bony thin like the models and I wasn't sure if it was just the way she was, thin boned with a great metabolism or if she just hadn't had decent meals all her life, it could be both. She looked so fragile and guilt washes over me as I thought back to when I had that conversation with Sonya. I hated Amy at that time and it really wasn't Amy's fault, no one asked to have someone's name on their skin permanently, and we defiantly didn't get to pick the name. I may not like the fact her name is on Minhos skin but there was nothing I could do about it and I defiantly couldn't blame this girl here. I also couldn't blame her for looking at Minho once learning who he was, I'd be curious too, he was written on her neck after all.

Thomas and Jackson sit away from me as I let myself get consumed by my thoughts and I barely notice Newt, Minho and Andy arrive until something touches my shoulder. I tear my sights from the girl that I wasn't even looking at, I was just looking straight through her in my mind and I see Newt pull his hand away and smile at me as he passes. I return the smile then look at Minho. His attention is purely on Thomas, another sign of how close those two really are and how much Minho really cares for the people he's befriended the past 3 years. Thomas hugs Minho, Minho looks surprised but only for a second before he's engulfing Thomas in a bear hug and then Thomas is doing the same to Newt

"Man is it good to see you guys" Thomas says

"It's good to see you awake, nearly had me worried for a second shank" Minho says as they all sit down

"Yeah, I was worried too, thought I was gonna pass out in that maze and wake up to a Griever eating my feet" Thomas says

"Glad he got you out in time, could have gone bad" Newt says

"Yeah, could have" Thomas agrees and I smile "Well, I'm glad you're ok Tommy!" Newt says and Thomas smiles at his friend and I just watch them, happy they're together, alive, friends. and finally I was happy I was here with them. God these guys make me soppy

"So who's the unlucky sap that got stung this time?" Minho asks, turning in his chair to look over to where I sat at the side of the bed. I actually pause, not wanting to say the name but before I can actually say it Jacksons already beating me to it

"Amy"

I look at Minho, his face says it all, he was curious, he stands up and walks over to the bed and stands next to me and looks at her and I hear Newt ask Thomas if he's still fit enough to go back in to the maze and they talk while I watch Minho looking down at this girl neither of us had spoken to.

"She's the girl on your neck" I say and Minho rubs his neck, showing he's uncomfortable with the whole thing then shrugs, dropping his hand to his side

"Don't mean anything" he states and I smile

"How are you?" I ask and he looks at me and it's then, looking at him properly for the first time today I see the blood on his left cheek. I stand up and rub my thumb over it, he flinches away from my touch for a second but then smiles and gives in.

"It's nothing serious, the shucking thing just came out of no where, took me by surprise"

"Uhuh" I say not believing him and he smiles

"Think it just wanted a hug" he says with a smile and I scoff a laugh

"Your filthy, let me atleast clean the cut, don't want it getting infected" I say moving to the cupboard with the cotton balls and wipes and the disinfectant liquid. Minho takes my place on the seat as I wet a cotton ball with water and start to wipe the dirt off his face

"How many you find in there?" I ask

"Two" I nod and keep cleaning

"She the only one that got stung?" He asks and I look to Amy before looking back to Minho's cheek, wiping a smudge of blood away and nod

"Winston found her by the showers, we don't know how long she was out before she was bought here" Minho just nods and I put the cotton ball to the side and get another one and pour the disinfectant on it and dab it on his small cut on his cheek.

"Look Minho, I want to say I'm sorry for yesterday, I know you're the keeper of the runners and it's fine if you don't want me running" I say and he looks down, looking a little guilty

"Nah I'm the one in the wrong shuck-face, I'm just being selfish" he states and I smile

"Selfish how?" I ask and he looks at his friends, currently happily chatting away across the room before he looks up to my eyes and I remove the cotton bud from his face and we look at each other

"I just don't want you getting hurt, it's dangerous out there for a stick like yourself" he says and I smirk

"yeah well I'm stronger than I look" I say and step back. nodding to let him know I'm done cleaning his cut

"Thanks" he says standing up and he looks at Amy again and I join him

"What you thinking?" I ask and Minho looks at me and shakes his head

"What's she and I got to do with each other? I've never even spoken to the girl" he says

"Thought it didn't mean anything?" I ask feeling the jealousy creep up again

"It don't, just wish those shucking ugly shanks down below could give us some instruction to go with these names, ya know" he says, an ounce of annoyance in his tone

"yeah, that would help" I say looking back at Amy.

"Hear you still want that damn celebration Lexi" Newt calls and I smile back at Newt and decide to join them sat together away from the girl I was jealous of.

"Yeah, you're not the only couple any more" I state as Minho follows me over to them

"So I've heard" he says with a smile.


	16. Chapter 16

The next night came and it was finally time to celebrate the couple. The fire was lit, there was laughter, music and drinks. Frypan had special food for us to fry over the open fire, skewers with vegetables, some with gammon from the freshly killed pig this morning and the chicken. I kinda wished we had marshmallows. There was a ring drew in the sand where Thomas and Winston had a friendly match, Thomas winning then we sat near the fire as others fought and Thomas told us about his first day in the glade, about how he got the memory of his name back after fighting a guy called Gally, then they went on to not knowing what happened to him, he was last seen being carried away by a Griever, yeah, he was dead!

 

 

Me, Sonya, Brenda and Harriet danced to the guys playing their man-made drums and bongos to bring the mood up a bit instead of talking about the missing people from our group and even Aris and Newt joined us until we couldn't dance anymore. We mostly just sat around the fire talking, not about the Grievers or Lighters or those wasps, not about finding our way out of the maze, not about survival or the names, just talking about crap and teasing each other all night and it was the best night I have had since arriving back up in that damn box. Then we put the fire out realising we were the last ones up. Newt falling asleep on Thomas' shoulder and we all made our way to our rooms. Brenda and Thomas seemed to chat together some of the night and me and Minho shared a look, we both saw something between them.

 

After breakfast the next day me and Jackson picked up some fruit from the gardens for us to snack on throughout the day and for when Amy wakes up as we knew she'd be hungry, we always were when we wake up from a wasp sting. She was the only person to get stung that night and I kinda feel sorry for the girl missing out on the bonfire and celebration last night as she slept through it.

 

She wakes up around 11 so she was clearly unnoticed gone for a few hours yesterday, what great friends she has I thought bitterly. I went with her to the toilet and shower room, she didn't want to go alone, scared she might get stung again as that was where it happened, right outside that room. We then went back to the medhut as I told her I wanted her to eat and take it easy. I sat with her, watching her eat an apple and drink up nearly a litre of water when she looks at me like she wanted to talk but was keeping quiet.

 "What's up?" I ask her as Jackson cleans up a slicers finger on the other side of the room

 "You hang out with Minho right?" She asks and I nod, knowing this was about the name thing

"yeah sometimes" 

 "I ..." She looks down and I just look at her as she tried to find words. Does she like him and actually believes what everyone is saying is true all because of Frypan and Hannah getting together?

 "He, he's a nice guy, right?" she finally asks looking up to me and I sigh

 "Yeah, when he isn't being sarcy" I say with a smile and she gives a tiny smile before looking back to her water in her right hand.

 "He seems nice but I've never spoken to him" She says

 "This is about his name being on you, right?" I ask and she nods looking at me

 "Yeah, clearly we are connected somehow or maybe we will end up, well.." She trails off looking at her lap again scrunching her eyebrows at the thought

 "What, he not your type?" I ask wondering why she's pulling that face

 "No, yes, well, erm .." I sigh, clearly she liked Minho and just didn't want to admit it

 "Look I don't think you have anything to worry about, Newt and Sonya are together and really happy and I would never want them to break up, Ever! I honestly think this name thing is a load of klunk, I don't know what it means but I doubt it has anything to do with 'couples'" I state and she just looks at me

 "Everyone else thinks it does" She says

 "Well, either way just because his names on your skin doesn't mean you have to throw yourself at him" I state, mostly just not wanting her to do that, ever.

 She laughs "I wouldn't do that" she says shaking her head smiling and I smile

 "So, who's name do you have?" She asks looking at me again

 "Jackson's" I state pointing to the guy behind me

 "He's cute" she whispers and I smile and look at the man behind us and nod

 "He's a nice guy" I say and look at Amy who's smiling at me

 "What?" I ask

"Nothing, just, well, I can see it" My eyes widen and I shake my head

"Oh no, no no no, not happening, I'm staying single, forever!" I state and she chuckles

 

 

 "So where are we on the number situation?" I ask during our last meal the next day

 "Well, we found the green number a couple weeks back, just waiting for it to count down to zero" Minho says

 "How many numbers you got left?" Harriet asks

 "6" Thomas says

 "Are we running tomorrow?" Sonya asks Harriet

 "No, you're not!" Newt says sternly and Sonya huffs, giving Newt a look

 "Newt!" She warns and me and Harriet share a look

 "You girls aren't running in there" Minho says looking to us

 "Then we all run together, or are you forgetting we haven't seen a Lighter yet, stop putting this off, we're going in there one way or another" Sonya says

 "No, you're not!" Minho says with no emotion like it was just obvious

 "Look guys" Harriet says sounding fed up

 "You either let us run with you or we run a different section after you leave without you, your choice" She says, folding her arms and sitting back.

 The guys share looks

 "Girls are relentless" Minho mutters shaking his head causing Harriet to smirk

 "It's only fair guys" Thomas says and Newt sighs angrily

 "Fine, but just this once" He says giving in and Sonya and Harriet share a victorious smile.

 

 

 "You found it?" I ask the group when they get back from running a week later. Since Harriet and Sonya last joined them they have been running almost daily with Minho, Thomas and Andy. With Sonya running Newt ran with them for a couple of days until Harriet made him go back to his work in the gardens and then today they took Brett with them. The latest newbie. He was quiet but had stamina.

"Yeah" Minho says, his jaw clenched tight. I give him a wary look before looking at the other guys

"Bad news?" I ask

"It's number 180!" Thomas says

"That's 6 months!" Minho states

"There can't be that many of those creatures in 1 section, right?" Brett asks causing us all to look at him. It's rare for him to speak up.

"Why?" Newt asks, crossing his arms

"You guys said you've killed a few before right, can we not wipe out all the Lighters in section 2?" he asks and we all share looks

"He's got a good point" Minho says to Thomas and Newt

"No bloody way, it's risky enough running in ther, now you want to go out there and fight all of them?" Newt asks

"It's suicidal!" Sonya says

"It's not!" Minho says then he looks to me

"Lexi, how many bows you got?"

"3, Brenda has one too making it 4" I say wearily

 "Think you can build more so we have one each?" He asks and I look at the group of runners shaking my head

 "Can you guys even shoot?" I ask

 "But you can teach us, can't you?" Thomas asks and it shocks me he's on board with this too

 "Seriously?" I ask and they all look determined, all apart from Newt of course

 "Seriously?!" Newt says then he looks to Harriet to back him up, she still plays a part in running this place too

"I don't know" She says as she shrugs before looking to Sonya then to me

"Teach us, if we suck it's not happening" she says and Newt frowns

"Well if that's the case one more bow!" Newt pipes up and Thomas smiles

"If you can't beat them, join them" Minho says patting Newt on his shoulder as Sonya gives him a smile.

"On one condition" I say

"Hell no!" Minho says, stepping forward towards me

"You don't even know what it is" I say in defence

"I think I can guess" he says

"This one isn't up to you Minho, if I have to make more bows and teach you guys how to use one properly then I'm coming with you!" I demand

Minho steps back, looking around with his jaw clenched again before looking to Newt, his eyebrows raising as if to say back me up here pal

Newt shrugs, probably knowing too well by now that he couldn't stop me and I smile.

"Apart from Alby she's the best shot I've seen with a bow, you can't deny that Minho" he says and Minho glares at me and walks away

"Minho!" Thomas calls but he continues walking 

"What the hell is his problem?" I mutter annoyed before chasing after him leaving the others behind me.

 

 

"Minho, slow down" I call.

As I reach him he turns around, getting in my face so I take a step back

"I told you to not play the hero" he says, his voice softer than I expected. He seems fed up

"And I thought if we were going to do something reckless we were doing it together?" I counter

"There's enough of us to do this without you joining in on this too"

"Maybe, but the more going the better our chances, we don't know how many there are in there" I say pointing to the wall 

"It doesn't matter how many there are because they don't group together, we can do this, just .. let us do this without you"

"I'm the better shot, until I teach you guys anyway, so like it or not Minho I'm going with you so stop being a dick about it" I say before storming off towards the homestead deciding to go back to Jackson. I left him there to look after Winston while I met the runners at the wall wanting to know if they found the number.

 

 

"Hey Lexi, whoa what's up?" Jackson asks as I enter the room and grab a bottle of water and sit down

"Minho!" I state and take a few sips of the room temperature water

"What's he done this time?" He asks

"Nothing, it doesn't matter, so how's the patients, another sting victim, I've only been gone half an hour?" I ask eyeing Serah, wanting to talk about something else.

"Lexi, what did he do?"

Well so much for that.

"He telling you what you can and can't do again?" he asks

"He's not like that Jax"

"Sure seems that way to me, how have you not punched him yet?" he asks and I smirk

"Because we have enough patients as it is" I say and Jackson smiles

"I don't get how you two can be friends when he treats you like .. klunk" he says and I smile at his disliking of the word

"He's not that bad"

"You keep telling yourself that" he says and I frown.

Minho wasn't that bad, was he?

 

 

I had last meal in the Med room, not wanting to see Minho. I knew he'd only be throwing me looks and he'd just ruin dinner for me so it was better sitting in here with the unconscious Gladers. Jackson was nice enough to get me the food too so I wouldn't have to go out there though it was all in vain.

As soon as I left the room to head to the bathroom after dinner Minho was walking towards the door.

I close the door behind me and just look at him

"What?" I ask as he stops a few feet in front of me

"Can we talk or are you too busy?" he asks and I sigh

"Fine just, wait here, I'll be back in a minute" I say walking away from him.

I wondered what he wanted. He annoyed me earlier, why did he have to argue against everything I did when it came to the maze? couldn't he see I just wanted to do what I could to help. With so many of us in there we had a good chance, and with bows, the chances were high. I hoped Minho could see that 

 

When I get back to the medhut Minho's no longer stood by the door waiting for me. Can't he even wait a shucking minute for me?

I open the door and close it lightly behind me though I wanted to slam it but when I look up I see Minho stood in the middle of the room. Jackson wasn't speaking to him and was instead sorting supplies that didn't need sorting but when I enter he stops and walks towards me.

"I'll give you both a few minutes" he says and I watch as he leaves, not looking too happy about it.

"What do you want?" I ask sitting down on the one of two chairs we had in the room. Minho drags another chair in front of me and sits down on it backwards, his arms crossed and leaning on the back of the chair. I just lean back in my chair waiting for him to talk.

"I've come to talk you out of going"

"Not going to happen!" I state, crossing my arms and he sighs

"Why are you so stubborn?"

"Because in the last Glade I was allowed to do what I wanted" I state

"It's dangerous out there Lexi, unless you hadn't noticed" he says and I sit forward, glaring at him

"Just get out Minho" I say sternly, staring into his almond eyes. They narrow, he wasn't about to back down.

"Please"

His plead took me by surprise and I just look at him

"Please just stay here and let us take care of this, for me"

"Why should I do anything for you?"

"Because we're friends" he says

"No, I thought we were friends until you started being an ass!" I state

"Lexi, you gotta believe that I'm doing this because I'm not an ass"

"Sure seems like an assy thing to do to me"

"It's not" he says calmly

"I'll make you a deal"

"And what's that?" he asks pulling his eyebrows in

"I won't go in the maze if you stay the hell away from me" I dare and he sighs

"You don't want me to stay away from you" he challenges back and now I'm trying not to smile. If he sees me smile he will know he's forgiven

"I think I know what I want"

"You want me" I smile and god dammit he's laughing at me. I look down, trying not to laugh but it was no good. I remembered the first time he said that to me. Last time I was blushing but now it was bringing back good memories of Minho teasing me 

"I hate you" I say to him and he smiles at me

"No you don't!" I sigh and smile and he stands up, moving the chair away so he's standing in front of me

"Am I forgiven?" He asks looking down at me with puppy dog eyes and damn it he's just too adorable. How can I say no to that face?

"Fine" He smiles and pulls me up and into a bear hug that I can't seem to push him away from so instead I give in, wrapping my arms around him.

"I'm sorry" he says into my hair as we still hug. I don't feel like letting him off easily though and saying he's forgiven.

"I just don't want you getting hurt"

I pull back slightly to look up at him, my arms still wrapped around his waist, his my shoulders.

His brown eyes are boring into mine and I suddenly feel nervous under his gaze and in his arms. There was something so intimate about it all. My stomach felt strange. Is this what people call butterflies? And why is he looking at me so intently?

His hands feel warm through my shirt and my hearts thumping in my chest as the silence drags on. I clear my throat just to drown own the silence and Minho steps back. His hands lingering a few seconds before they're gone and he's giving me a small smile before leaving the room.

I take a deep breath and sit on the nearest stool. What the hell was that? 

And it clicks, he is the worst, making puppy dog eyes and walking out before I can push away the butterflies and come to my senses to tell him I'm still going in there. He really is an ass!


	17. Chapter 17

With more bows being needed I started on them the next day.  Brenda sat with me outside as she made arrows. With these bows I could finally teach archery to the runners as we would have one each. We also had just over 60 arrows which sounds a lot, until you realized there are going to be 8 people with a bow. It took a week but finally there were enough bows for the runners, including Newt.

I left it up to the guys to sort out the targets which ended up being wooden crates from this weeks supplies. They lined them all up next to the stone wall on the west side which was the less used area of the Glade. This way we were out the way and couldn't do some serious damage to any passers by.

The runners and Newt were waiting for me and Brenda, sat on the crates talking amongst themselves. Andy was the first to take a bow, he looked excited as he looked it over and pulled on the rope.  
"Careful, it's not a toy" I tease with a smile as I pass them out. Keeping stick to my side.  
The grip I carved was carved to my hand size for less irritation and saw bones.

we spent hours over by the wall, shooting arrows and having a laugh. Thomas and Harriet were naturals, barely missed their target. Newt wasn't so good to start with but once he learnt what stance worked best for him he started getting the hang of it. 

Minho, Sonya, Brett and Andy was decent shots too. I was proud of them all. After 4 hours of shooting and 9 broken arrows we was done practising for the day and they all took their bows to dinner. I think they were all attached.

After dinner Newt, Sonya and Andy went to Winston. Their arms had bruised so they went to see if Winston can make us all some leather arm guards while Thomas and Brenda went back to the falling apart crates for more practice. 

"So, what you doing now doc?" Minho asks as I hand in my empty bowl to Hannah with a smile.

"I need to make 9 more arrows" I state waiting for Min to give in his bowl

"There enough day light for that?" He asks 

"Probably not" I admit with a smile which he returns 

"Lets go relax then, Jackson don't need you does he?"

"He's been fine without me so far today" I admit

"Good" he says walking away and I follow him in silence until we get to the lake. Minho sighs when he sits down and falls backwards, his hands under his head. I lie beside him and look at the lake. the sun was already starting to fade.

 

"Oh my god you're so warm" I say as our arms accidentally touch. I push against him to steal as much as I could.

"You wonna go inside?" He asks though he pulls his arm up allowing me to rest my head on it and lie next to his body for more heat.

"No, I like being out here" I admit as I get comfortable

"Even with the risk of the waspers?"

"They'll leave you alone if you're not a threat, right?" I ask turning my head left to face him. He looks at me and it's only then I realise how this could look to anyone who comes over. Right then and there though I realise I don't actually care.

"They stung you! " he teases and I smile

"Yeah but I had malicious intent"

"So what, you think they know when they're in danger?" He asks

"Maybe" I shrug

"Hmm, we'll I defiantly don't think a theory is worth the risk"

"You wonna leave me out here alone?" I ask giving him the puppy eyes, seeing how he likes it. He rolls his eyes but he's smiling. He tugs me closer to him, causing me to roll on my side as he places his hand on my shoulder muttering about crazy and that I'm not wearing a flower. I laugh and we go quiet enjoying each others company and warmth we are both providing. I close my eyes deciding we could have that talk about me going into the maze another time.

 

"There you are!" Newt says as I open my eyes and raise my head off Minhos chest.

"What?" I mutter looking around. It was pitch black and I couldn't see anyone. I thought I had imagined Newts voice until I hear him laugh

"You two shanks look comfy!" He says and I look from a sleeping Minho to Newt and I sit up and away from him, rubbing the sleep from my eyes though it just makes Newt laugh again. 

"Harriet's worrying, told her there was nothing to worry about, can't wait to tell them about this" he teases as I yawn and stretch

"There's nothing to tell" I say and Newt smiles and turns around to start limping back to the homestead 

"Minho" I say lighting shaking him 

Nothing 

"Minho!" I say a little louder 

Still nothing

Panic takes over and I find myself checking for a pulse as I yell for Newt.

Minho was a light sleeper, I should have known something was wrong when I woke up from Newt and Minho didn't.

"What's wrong?" Newt asks as he falls onto his knees besides Minho

"He's not waking up!" I say as I look into Newts eyes.

Newt looks back down at Minho and taps his cheek lightly a few times

"Has he been stung?" He asks and I exhale in relief

Of course, what else could it be

"I dunno, I can't really see out here" I admit

"OK, help me lift him" I nod and we both grab at Minho, an arm each and we go as fast as we can to the medhut.

We place Minho onto the bed and Newt goes to get the serum as I look over Minho.

I check down his arms to find nothing. I lean in closer to look at his neck and just below his ear I see it, the dark veins protruding from the small sting mark. I lean back as Newt hands me the serum and he goes to get a torch light to help me see better. I inject the serum into Minho's neck and we both just look at him for a minute.

"He's gonna be ok" Newt says putting his hand on my shoulder and I nod.

"Thanks Newt" I say and he gives me a warm smile as he puts the torch on the hooks on the wall so there's a bit of light near Minho.

"Want me to go and get Jackson?" he asks

"No, there's nothing we can do until he wakes up anyway" I admit sadly looking over him.

"Ok, well, don't stay in here all night, he's tough" I smile and watch Newt leave the building.

I drag the stool and sit on it besides the bed and look over Minho.

He looked peaceful, just sleeping. It bought a smile to my face. I can't believe we fell to sleep out there.

I wanted to stay with him but I knew he wouldn't wake up now until tomorrow night. I make sure he's comfortable and then put out the light and go to bed.

 

Harriet and Brenda are still awake when I enter my room, they start teasing me until they see my face

"What?" Brenda asks

"Minho got stung" I say climbing into bed

"He ok?" Harriet asks

"Yeah"

"So, what were you two doing by the lake?" Brenda asks

"Napping" I say and they both laugh

"Yeah, sure" Harriet says so I nudge her.

 

The next day Thomas and the other runners went running without Minho, me and Brenda saw them off and collected our bows and sat by the lake deciding to make the arrows back that we broke yesterday. With everyone practising yesterday no one ran but either way we knew if we didn't find a green number now then it was the one number we missed. We was still only on number 159. We had a long way to go.

Aris and Molly joined us at some point and we all talked and made up silly rhymes and raps about the Glade to pass the time. After last meal I grab an extra plate from Frypan and head for the medhut knowing Minho should wake up in a couple hours.

Jackson asks about my arrow making and tells me about our latest sting victim from a few hours ago, It was a Glader I didn't know. I then sat by Minho, thinking about the horrible dreams Minho and the other guy must be having right now, wishing I could wake them up from it all. Not that this place wasn't one big living nightmare anyway, I guess it was better than whatever images were flickering through their minds, death, blood, Grievers, Lighters, running for your life, being left alone. Everyone's worst fear was different I guess. I wondered what Minho's was.

Jackson had left a few minutes ago and I was falling to sleep, my arms on the side of Minho's bed working as my pillow when I feel the bed move slightly. I sit up and see Minho awake and smile.

"Hey there sleeping ugly, you ok?" I ask 

He smirks and pushes himself up to a sitting position

"Why am I in here?" He asks confused looking around

"You got stung, you not remember?" I ask as he frowns, racking his brain

"Nope"

"You must have been asleep when it stung you. You hungry, thirsty?" I ask

"Starving" He mutters and I smile passing him his soup and get up to go and grab him a jar of water

"So I got stung huh, I been out the whole day?" he asks as he takes the water and I sit back besides him

"Yeah, Newt took your place running today, Newt was the one that helped me drag you in here" 

Minho smiles and takes a big gulp of water

"And you've been here all day playing nurse?" he asks with a teasing tone

"You wish, only been here a few hours, Jackson's been with you most of the day" I admit and he furrows his brows for a second before drinking his soup straight from the bowl

"Nightmares aren't fun, huh" he mutters as he puts his empty bowl down

"No they're not, what you dream?" I ask

"I got stabbed, like a whole Griever arm going straight through my chest after a night getting stuck in the maze, alone!" He shakes his head and then climbs out of the bed

"Where you going?" I ask standing up

"Well, if it's alright with you doc I want a hall pass for the toilet, and maybe a shower" I smile rolling my eyes

"You feel ok, not in pain or feeling faint?" I ask

"I feel fine Lexi, go to bed" I sigh knowing he was in fact fine and we both leave the room.

"Hey Lex!" I look at Minho as I close the door behind us

"Yeah?"

"Thanks" I smile and he heads for the showers as I head for the homestead. 

"You think were ready to take these in there?" Andy asks me the next day after the runners had gotten back. After showering and eating they came straight to practice their archery skills. I look from the bow in Andy's hand to the walls.

"A few more days, the targetsin there move" I state and Thomas smiles at the challenge.

After it was too dark to tell if we was hitting the targets and making it hard to find our arrows we all headed back to the homestead. 

"Only 3 broken arrows today, big improvement" I say to Minho as we were at the back of everyone.

"Think were going to have enough for in there?" Minho asks nodding his head towards the maze

"If we collect our ammunition and re use it then yeah, we have plenty" I state

"So I take it you're still adamant on coming"

"Minho" I sigh not wanting to have this argument again

"You do realize we're not letting you girls in there right?" Minho says with determination and I roll my eyes

"We're going in there!" I say but get no reply and we walk back the rest of the way in silence.

 

When the day came for the guys to go in there and kill all the Lighters they could come across Minho had successfully made a way for us girls not to go by calling a Gathering all thanks to Thomas aparently which I was surprised at, Thomas was usually all up for my plans. They were right though with what they said at the gathering, they was good with their bows and with them not having to get close this was just a walk in the park for them so me and the girls stayed behind. I wasn't too bothered, the thought of battle didn't exactly sound fun so I guess they were welcome to them but I was still annoyed at the guys grouping up on us by calling a gathering. It didn't stop me worrying about them though. The arrows were just made out of basic wood and they broke easily. There was a chance they'de run out of arrows and have to retrieve them from a still walking and slashing Lighter, they could all break if they wasn't careful and not forgetting about the wasps. Me and Sonya was grateful for having Harriet, Aris and Brenda with us most of the day to keep us occupied and reassure us the guys could take care of themselves. It didn't stop us waiting at the wall come closing time though. They only had 6 minutes before the walls were due to close when they came running down that damn corridor.

The closer they got the more I could see the scrapes and blood. The teared up clothes and just how tired they all looked. Sonya pulls Newt into a hug without saying a word and I look over the other guys.

"How'd it go?" I ask no one in particular

"well, we killed every single one we came across" Andy says proudly

"There was something wrong though" Thomas says as Sonya and Newt pull apart

"What do you mean by that?" Sonya asks

"They were grouped together and there was more, almost like they knew we were coming" Newt says

"What, how?" I ask

"Ain't it obvious" Minho says and I frown

"WICKED" I mutter and Thomas nods

"Either way were glad you girls didn't come, wasn't pretty out there" Andy says

"I gathered, you guys need fixing up, pronto!" I say

"Don't worry doc, ya can clean us up.. once we've eaten" Minho says and I smile

Keeping his promise I walk with Thomas, Newt, Minho, Brett and Andy to the medhut, Jackson leaving me to it as he had been working alone all day as I had taken the day off to worry about the guys. There was a sleeping guy on the bed so we sat on the other end of the room as I lit a lantern and got everything together so I could clean up the boys. Newt was the most damaged, a lighter creeping up on him and catching him down his back so I clean him up first.

"I hope Sonya doesn't get jealous" Andy says with a teasing smile and Newt scoffs, telling Andy he's an idiot

"Bet Lexi ain't the only girl that's gotten your top off, you sly dog" Minho adds in, continuing the teasing of their friend

"Alright guys" Newt says shutting them up though he was laughing

"There just jealous" I state, sticking up for Newt deciding to give them all a dig. They laugh and Newt throws me a smile

"Alright Newt, all cleaned up, next" I call as Newt gets off the chair, putting his shirt back on carefully so not to touch his bandaged up back

"Now let Sonya nurse ya back to health" Andy says and Newt pushes him shaking his head

"Can't give it a bloody rest can you guys, swear it's like living with children" he says and I laugh as Andy takes his place. Andy also takes his top off, the rips in his t-shirt were too small and too many, making my job harder. He has a few cuts and scrapes that are small and only really need cleaning on his arms, stomach and shoulder

"2 guys in one night, you're on a roll there Lexi, that the reason you decided to be a Medjack?" Minho teases with a wink and I smile and roll my eyes

"Yes Minho, that's exactly why I took the job, how did you ever know?" I ask overly sarcastic and the boys all laugh

"Ahh we all know why she took the job" Andy says eyeing me with a knowing smile and I raise a brow at him to fill me in on what he thinks he knows.

"She has the other med jacks name on her neck, getting close to Jackson, huh" he says wiggling his eyebrows and I have the urge to pinch one of his fresh cuts

"I was a med jack in the old glade slint-head so I don't know how you came to that conclusion" I say getting a laugh from Thomas and Brett.

"Ahh I'm just messing, cheers Lex, I'm going to bed, night guys" Andy says, getting up off the stool before I even said I was done, leaving the room and we all say good night to him.

Brett only had a cut on his arm so I clean that up and add a little ointment as it looked painful. He thanks me and Thomas takes his place, taking his top off, the cut just above his right nipple making it impossible not to

"I'm gonna go, Sonya will be wondering what's taking me" Newt says as I'm cleaning Thomas last cut

"Getting grossed out by Thomas' moobs too?" Minho asks Newt from his chair in front of Thomas and Newt laughs

"There's that too" Newt says smiling at Thomas

"Yeah thanks guys, really, I appreciate the complex you're giving me" Thomas says, looking at his nipples, trying to flex them and I laugh and step back

"Alright Newt, see you in the morning" I say, trying not to laugh at Thomas. Newt nods a goodbye to us all and he leaves the room with Brett at his side.

"Stop, your moobs are... very manly" I say and Thomas smiles and Minho shakes his head, looking down, stifling a laugh. I tap the stool for Minho as I hand Thomas his top when done with his last cut on his shoulder and Minho sits down as Thomas throws his top on.

"What's the damage?" I ask Minho as Thomas pours himself a glass of water behind us in the shelf Minho shrugs

"You tell me" I roll my eyes and look over him closely, looking for any tares in his sweaty shirt, his harness hung over another chair to the side. He has a scrape on his lower back and his forearm but with his top on and all the small cuts on his t-shirt from the other times he had gone out running in it (They didn't own many shirts) It really was hard to tell

"You know what, take it off too, I can't tell with how holy you are" I state and Minho sighs and pulls his shirt over his head in one swift motion, holding it still in his hands as the arms are still on, resting at his wrists on his lap

"4 guys in 1 night, new record" Thomas states walking over to us and I smirk and look over Minho's back as I'm stood behind him just staring at his back with the light from the lantern.

"I feel dirty just looking at you all" I tease although honestly it hadn't even bothered me in the slightest, Since coming here some Gladers walked around topless, it was ok for a guy to wear no shirt. Though when I walked around Minho after counting how many small cuts he had on his back to check his front suddenly my mind stopped as I stared at the masculine body in front of me. Thomas putting the empty jar on the side was what snapped me out of just staring at Minho. I'd never had that happen before. I liked what I was looking at. His olive skin taking on a hue of chestnut in the light of the lantern and the dark room around us.Defined lines showing hints of what could be a six pack if he worked towards one. He was gorgeous. I had just seen 3 guys topless, how was seeing Minho topless affecting me this way and the others didn't? they were all in great shape. I look up at Minho's face, his left eyebrow raised in amusement, waiting for my verdict.

"Erm, nothing up front" unfortunately. I look back at his stomach and chest, just to double check as Thomas sits down, tapping his foot waiting for his roommate and friend and I just get to work on his back, working in silence.

"Done" I say, tapping his shoulder a few minutes later. He puts his shirt on and stands up and I pass him his harness "Thanks" He says and I nod and Thomas stands up

"We done?" Thomas asks

"Were done" I nod and we leave the med room after I give the wasp victim a quick look over and we head to our bedrooms in a comfortable silence.

As soon as I close my eyes to sleep a few minutes later all that's popping into my head is the image of Minho topless, Sleep was futile it seemed.


	18. Chapter 18

A month had passed. The Lighters still walked the halls of the maze, more appearing each day. The guys risked their lives in vain, there didn't seem to be an end of the Lighters in there as they just kept coming back no matter how many they killed. After a Gathering to discuss this topic we decided to go in careful and just look for the numbers. At least we knew they died easily enough. I would rather face a horde of those than Grievers any day.

Brenda has been helping me make more bows and arrows and after lunch we have archery and fighting classes, Harriet deciding as we was getting closer to the last few numbers that she needed to concentrate on making the Gladers stronger, meaning all of them if they wanted to fight or not.  
We had burnt another nest of wasps but the wasps are still stinging, sometimes they won't sting anyone in a day, other times up to 3 people could be stung.  
Amy, as petite as she was had asked me last month if she could have a bow, showing great improvements quicker than anyone I had seen and was secretly my favourite pupil, although I still felt jealous just looking at her. Catching sight of the name last week as I stood behind her, helping her with her stance actually made me freeze and just stare. It was weird seeing his name in writing, especially on a girls neck. It didn't help none of us could see our necks, it was easy to forget we even had names on our skin. The only mirror we had was the small one in the bathroom.

Another couple had come out, helping to prove my theory wrong again as they had each other's names tattooed on their necks. I was slowly starting to believe it may actually be a partnering up thing though I'd never admit it aloud. The only thing giving me faith about my theory was Sonya and Newt, they were even closer than ever, always smiling and hanging out together.

The rules of the Glade were always growing and changing now there were both sexes. Some guys were decent, like Thomas, Aris, the others I'm close with but others were just damn right creepy, always being flirty, staring at unknown girls asses and talking crudely about girls. It was understandable I guess but they could at least try to hide it from others.  
Another rule that's been added, a few months back now was shower times.  
Girls shower before 5 pm, guys after 5:05 pm and so after playing target practice with Brenda, using a man-made target practice circle board tied to a tree I noticed it was 4:32 and I really needed a shower.

  
I say goodbye to Brenda and run to the showers. I grab a towel and fold my clothes, putting them to the side, happy to have the shower room to myself.  
I lather my hair with shampoo and enjoy the feel of the water, taking my time knowing I had half an hour to wash and the water was heavenly and limitless and warm, thanks to those bastards that put us here. Only good thing they did that everyone agrees on.  
After washing my whole body and carefully shaving I borrow someone's conditioner, thinking about the runners, they should be getting back by now. I also wonder what Frypans cooking us up for supper?

  
I stand under the spray of water, wetting my face and then the back of my head and then rub out my conditioner, just staying under the water for a while.  
I wished the lake was big enough, and clean enough to swim in. I wondered if I could actually swim, I had no idea. Another memory I can't remember. I knew about swimming and I felt like I had done it before but when, where, who with, was I a good swimmer?

I pull back from the water, moving my long hair over my shoulder and rub my face letting out a breath, turning the shower off. The room had steamed up a little though the poorly built wooden shack type shower room was filled with cracks, the cold breeze making my hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stick up.  
I step away from the shower and start drying out my hair knowing I should be making a move, the runners might need bandaging up again if they ran into trouble. It was worrying, they'd killed a lot of Lighters but every morning more Lighters appeared to take the place of ones they had killed.   
I was just grateful the guys came back in one piece.

I stand up straight, whipping my head up, my hair slapping my back and I freeze, my eyes wide as Thomas stands there. He turns around after an agonizing 3 seconds in a panic and I wrap myself in the towel, realising he just saw me naked.

"What the hell Thomas, you can't knock!" I shout

"Lexi I am so sorry, I fell in Griever goo, came straight here, it's 5 past and I didn't think anyone would be here I swear, I'm so sorry, I didn't see anything I swear"

"Are you crazy! and of course you saw me, oh god you saw me naked" I mutter and Thomas turns around, knowing I had the towel tightly wrapped around me, at least I hoped he knew.  
I grab for my jeans, pulling them on under the towel, not bothering with my underwear, not wanting Thomas to even see them

"Just turn around and let me get changed!" I snap and he jolts around again.

"I can't believe it" I mutter dropping the towel and grabbing my bra and t-shirt, putting them on as fast as I could

"Lexi, man , I am so sorry, I won't tell anyone I swear, You have nothing to be ashamed of, I mean you're, erm..."

"Thomas, shut up!" I say

"Ok, I'll, erm, I'm ... I'll shut up"

"I hate you right now, I won't be able to look at you ever again" I say and Thomas turns around and pulls a sorry type smile

"Hey you've seen me topless, we're even now" he says trying to cut past the awkwardness and make this better for me and I smile, grateful for it and then we both laugh as I grab my socks and I shake my head

"I'm just grateful I shaved" I mutter to myself and Thomas' eyes widen for a second and he scratches the back of his head and I laugh at him hearing me, Thomas joining in, until he points to my left, his mouth agape

"Lexi, stop moving"  
I stop as I go to grab for one of my shoes and look to my left but I can't see what had spooked him

"What?" I ask in a whisper

"There's a wasp .. on your shoulder" he says, slowly stepping towards me  
I look over my shoulder and see it, just sat there, not even making a sound

"Since when were these things quiet?" I ask and Thomas looks at me questionably as he steps forward with curious eyes

"I don't know" he says taking another step slowly

"It's not even making a buzzing noise, they usually, Aw klunk" I say slapping my shoulder but the thing had stung me and flew off before I could catch the bastard

"I need to go to the med hut and get that serum before I pass out!" I say already feeling sick as the venom spreads through my veins

"Come on" Thomas says and I slip my shoes on, not even tying the laces and were sprinting for the hut together.  
When we get there Jackson's nowhere to be seen

"Where the hell is Jackso- oh god Thomas!"

"Yeah"

"Catch me?" I ask, feeling seconds from passing out

"What- oh shit" his arms outstretched towards me as I'm swallowed in darkness.

 

Running, footsteps, Grievers whirring, and clicking, echoing off the walls, the screams of the Lighters, so much running. The walls are whizzing around us, there are monsters chasing us, the cliff edge so close.  
I chance a look back to see a Griever, it's close, too close, Minho and Harriet behind me, the Grievers saw hand outstretched, it slices through the air, through Harriet's left shoulder, diagonally through her stomach, cutting her clean in half. My screams going unheard as the panic around us grows with each running step. The saw continues, blood splattering the walls of the maze and it connects with Minho, slicing through his chest, his eyes bore into mine as he's decapitated in front of my eyes. I close my eyes and shake my head, still running. I turn around, running for my life, the Griever now after me, the cliff side only inches away. I fall down, not caring if I jumped through the hole or fall to my death. Harriet and Minho are dead.  
In the blink of an eye, I go from falling to rising. The gears of the lift sending me up, up towards the Glade.

Again.

Alone.

 

I wake up with a gasp like I had been deprived of air since passing out. the rooms light and I'm sweating.

"Hey there sleeping ugly, enjoy your second nap"? I hear a teasing familiar voice as I look around the medhut as I push myself up to a sitting position.

"Minho?" I ask looking to my right, he's sat there to welcome me back.  
I throw myself at him, hugging him from my seat on the bed. I don't hold him for long, tears in my eyes. I was shaken up, he's alive?

"You, you died" I say looking into his eyes and he smirks

"Dain't ya get the memo, I'm Minho, I can't die"  
I laugh and feel myself calm down as Minho pushes my hair out of my face and wipes a tear that spilled, the tension and dread slowly seeping out of my body

"You were thrashing, never seen that before, all the others just sleep peacefully" Jackson says walking over from somewhere, handing me some water

"Another night mare?" Harriet asks and I smile wide at her as I notice her in the room.

"Ok, what you being pumping her with?" She asks Jackson and I realise I must look like a crazy person, smiling at my best friend like I hadn't seen her in years yet I see her every day

"You died too, god it looked so real" I say looking from her back to Minho.

"Shouldn't you be running?" I ask, it suddenly appearing to me and he shrugs, not giving me a real answer

"You ok Lexi?" Harriet asks me looking worried and I nod

"Yeah, I'm fine, I had a different nightmare and it was, dark, you and Minho got sliced in half, right in front of my face by a Griever just before I jumped down the Griever hole, It was gruesome. Then I was back in the lift, it was ... " I couldn't find a word

"Jeez, glad that was just a dream" Minho says and I nod and smile after seeing his face looking worried.

"I do not want to go out that way thanks" Harriet says and I look at her.

"You ok to stand, walk?" Jackson asks me and I pass my water to Minho. He puts it on the shelf then puts his hand out, helping me off the bed.  
I stand and Minho lets me go as I find my strength then I step forward, holding my weight fine

"She seems good to me" Minho says and Jackson smiles

"We were all worried" Jack says and I think of Thomas, and the bathroom, oh god

"Thomas?" I ask and Minho raises a brow

"He's running, should be back by now, why?"

"He bought me here, he err, said anything?" I ask

"About what?" Harriet asks

"Nothing" I say shaking my head

"You sure ya didn't knock ya shuck head when ya collapsed?" Minho asks and I push him slightly

"Hopefully Thomas caught me, If I have a screw loose it's his fault" I state and Harriet smiles

"I don't want to see another wasp ever again" I state taking my drink from Minho, finishing it off.  
Harriet leaves to tell Sonya, Brenda, and the others I have woken up and Minho says he's taking me to Frypan for some much-needed grub.

"Hey Lexi, you're awake, you ok?" Frypan asks when we get to his food stand

"Never better Fry" I smile

"Got anything for her?" Minho asks

"Sure, hold on a sec" Frypan says, rummaging round to put something together for me and I thank him and me and Minho sit on the grass in the sun.

"So how come you didn't go running?" I ask

"You have to ask? it was clearly my awesome nursing skills that got your ass out of that bed"

"So you stayed here to nurse me back to health?" I ask

"I could be a med-Jack" he states, avoiding answering the question with a straight answer

"I was just grateful it happened once I got out of the shower, the horror of someone finding me passed out in the shower, as naked as the day I was born" I shake my head and  
Minho snorts a laugh

"Wouldn't wish that on my enemies" he says with a grin, looking across the glade again  
"I can't believe I've been stung twice" I say annoyed

"Just wrong place wrong time" He states.

"Embarrassing"

"No, what's embarrassing is that you can take down a Lighter so easily and get taken out by a wasp so easily" He says and we look at each other, a mischievous playful smile on the runners face and I nudge him

"Oh thanks, cause that isn't making it sound worse at all" I state

"It's what I'm here for"  
I roll my eyes but I smile and lie back, I still felt a little tired. Minho stayed sitting beside me and it went quiet for a while

"Ya really dreamed I died?" He asks a moment later

"Yeah, you and Harriet, was vivid and felt so real" I state thinking back to it, watching that thing slice through them like they were made out of butter.

"I'd like to imagine I'd die old, sitting on my throne, hight in the trees, looking over the Glade" he says sarcastically and I laugh

"Wow, you have some big goals in life"

"Huge" he mocks and we both laugh

"You know, everyone that's gotten stung and had a nightmare have said it's their biggest fear coming true, me dying on you scare you that much, I know everyone would top themselves without me around but come on"  
I nudge the big-headed Glader and smile, looking down slightly embarrassed, well-done slint-head, why did I have to admit I saw him die

"It wasn't just you!"

"Me and your friend, I knew it, you want me!"

"Oh shut up klunk brain" I say looking over at him when I notice Frypan walking over, bowl of soup piping hot in one hand and 2 apples in the other.  
I sit up and take the soup and an apple from him, Frypan giving Minho the other.  
We thank him and he goes back to sitting with Hannah, enjoying his few hours of peace until he has to get to work feeding the Glade again.

Minho throws our apple cores into the woods to fertilise and he puts my bowl on the cooking shack and we lie in the grass side by side, enjoying the warmth and the peace.  
I look at Minho after a few minutes of enjoying the piece and quiet and decide to join him lying down.  
His hands are behind his head and his right knees bent as he watches the birds and cloudless sky.  
  
"You think were gonna get out here for good this time?" I ask after thinking back to my nightmare  
Minho keeps his eyes on the sky as I look at him

"I don't know, this place is jacked bigger than I thought possible, I'm hoping I'm just in a coma and when I wake up I'll have a life to go back to, family, friends, real buildings, Sunday roasts, cable"  
I smile and look to the sky

"That sounds nice, that would mean I'm just a figment of your imagination, now who's dreaming about who huh?" I tease and he chuckles quietly and I watch as his chest rises and falls with the laughter. Minho removes his hands from behind his head and places them at his sides. His knuckles brush against the back of my hands and then suddenly he's taking my hand in his. I look at him but he's just looking at the sky. I look down to our entwined hands and smile, deciding to look at the sky too and just enjoy the moment.


	19. Chapter 19

The alarm sounding through the Glade the day after reminds us of another Greenie arrival.  
Everyones running towards it, leaving their jobs for the time being, me and Jackson doing the same. We had nothing better to do than watch the show like usual.  
The girls already out of the box by the time we walk over to it, not feeling like running.  
She was pretty, talking to Frypan and Winston, I think nothing of it until I hear her mention Thomas' name.

"He's running? so he's here?" The new girl asks Frypan

"Yeah yeah, he's here, damn, it's good to see you, you not remember anything?" Frypan asks her as we stand with the others just listening in to their conversation, they seemed to know her.

"No, I just, I was through that door then suddenly I'm in some kind of lift" She states

"Oh yeah, you were asleep when you came up the first time" Winston says

"I'm glad for it, so Newt, Minho, Chuck, they're all ok?" the girls asks

"Yeah, well Chuck hasn't come up yet but the others are fine"  
The girl nods a few times, clearly happy at what she's hearing

"Oh hey, apparently that's Teresa" Harriet says, pulling me to stand with her and Sonya.

"Thomas' friend, the girl tattooed on his neck?" I ask

"Yeah" Sonya answers for me

"I have to see this reunion" I say and we all look at Teresa.

When it's time the runners should be back Me, Brenda, Harriet and Sonya head for the wall, waiting to greet Thomas, and be nosey.  
Thomas soon appears, Brett, Andy, and Minho by his side.  
Thomas spots Teresa and she smiles and Thomas stops for a second before he's sprinting and Teresa stands there smiling.

"Teresa?" Thomas asks, running up to her, putting his hands on her arms  
Teresa has other ideas, pulling her friend in for a hug and he hugs back, a look of shock plastered on his flustered face.

"Wait, what you doing here, you just arrive today!, what do you remember?" He asks pulling back and she laughs

"It's good to see you too Thomas" She says and Thomas laughs

"Holy" Thomas mutters shaking his head and it's smiles all round

The old gang is now back together, minus Chuck but with Teresa returning it's a sign this Chuck might be making an appearance too at some point and I couldn't wait to meet the little guy.

  
Thomas moved her hair during dinner to see she had Thomas' name written neatly across the back of her neck, she had no idea it was there.

"What does it mean?" She asks, looking around the table to everyone

"We don't know yet" Harriet tells her

"Some people think it means you've gotta kill that person, others think their your damn soulmate, either way they all sound stupid" Sonya says, showing her distaste towards the theories

"So we won't know the meaning?" Teresa asks

"I don't know" Thomas says lowly

 

Teresa had moved into Thomas and Minho's room, to Minho's disliking. 

Me and Harriet open our door to see what the noise was to see Minho with his mattress under his arm walking through the bedroom door onto the landing.

"What are you doing?" I ask as I see Thomas stood at his door

"Giving them some privacy" he says and I look to Thomas. He shrugs, clueless, he clearly didn't want Minho to move out

"I don't think they need it" I state and Minho shrugs and walks away.

I follow him down to the room he was now taking as his own and stand at the doorway.

"I think you've hurt Thomas' feelings" I say and Minho looks at me

"No I haven't, I didn't tell him I'm leaving because I don't like Teresa, I said I'm leaving to allow them to catch up and have space"

"Why don't you like her?" I ask as he starts making his bed

"I don't trust her, therefore, I don't like her" I sigh and go to leave, Teresa seemed fine to me but Minho's judgement couldn't be that wrong.

"And here was me thinking you followed me to help me move in, gonna tuck me in too, read me a bedtime story?" I turn to see him smiling at me

"Yeah, it's called beauty and the beast!" I mock with a smile

"Aww come on now shank, you ain't that ugly"

I laugh and shake my head

"Good night Minho!" I say and walk away

On the stairs Thomas' bedroom door is still open and he walks over to me as I reach the landing

"He not coming back?"

"No, said he doesn't like sharing you, think he's jealous" I say with a smile and Thomas returns it

"He's always calling me an ugly shank, knew it was his way of complimenting me" Thomas says and I laugh thinking back to Minho referring me to the beast just a moment ago.

"Well, night Lexi"

"Night Thomas" I smile and head inside my own room

 

 

I was teaching archery the next day when the runners returned, running past us to head for the lake to look at the numbers and sections of the map. I was standing next to Amy as usual. Her talents with a bow were impressive. Minho winks at me as he passes and I scoff.

"I overheard Harriet and Brenda talk about you and Minho, they want you to get together, will you?" Amy asks.

There's no ounce of humour or teasing in her voice, she was generally curious and not in a friendly way. Was she jealous of me? no that couldn't be right, she was the one with his name on her damn neck. I frown, Amy putting me in a crappy mood instantly.

"Were friends" I state although I wanted to say otherwise, just to see her face. What was her problem?

I go and stand next to Brenda who's helping Chris with his bow. He sucked big time.

"You ok?" She asks

"I'm fine" I say forcing a smile. I liked Brenda, and me and Harriet would talk about Newt and Sonya so I couldn't blame them for talking about me and Minho.

I look back at Amy who's lining up her next shot. Again I decided no matter what I just couldn't like Amy, even if she was awesome with a bow.

 

At dinner the guys talked numbers, filling us all in on how the maze is going. We still have 2 sections to go, were slowly going through the third, the green number hadn't made an appearance just yet. They also talked about the cliff and how we should all have memorised how to get to it by now, and yes it was Minho who said that. I had to kindly remind him we all didn't have a photographic memory like he did, then we argued playfully about it, I showed him up from saying my memory was the one of a child's by telling him how to get to the cliff on our chosen Monday of the week, it shut him up, for a few minutes anyway.

After last meal usually we all just sit in the main room until people decide to sleep then we make our way to our bedrooms but today Minho asked if I wanted to go for a walk when the first Glader fell asleep and people called it a night.

"Why a walk anyway?" I ask as he holds the door for me.

I close it behind us and we start our walk.

"I always go on walks"

"Seriously?" I ask. I had no idea Minho would leave and go on walks around the Glade.

"Yeah, well not as often as I used to, it's just nice for clearing my head" he states and I smile happily at learning more about my friend.

"In the first Glade, I used to come out on jogs at night" I say, deciding if he's sharing then I might as well too

"Jogs, really? why?" Minho asks

"Practice for the maze. I may have been a runner but it took practice for me to gain the stamina, I'd come out and practice for about half an hour, until I started sharing the mattress with Harriet and Sonya, I knew I wouldn't be able to sneak out then"

Minho snorts a laugh, shaking his head

"Wanna jog?" He asks with a raised brow, excitement shining in his deep brown eyes. 

"Come on, it'll be fun"

"You don't jog, your equivalent to a jog is a run, a run a sprint" I admit and Minho laughs

"If you weren't such a short ass" he mocks and I nudge him playfully. He gives me a childish glare before he pushes me, nearly toppling me over and before I even fully catch my balance he's running away backwards, mocking me with that infectious smile of his.

"Yeah you better run" I say and start running after him. He smiles and turns around, making more distance between us as he runs off.

I finally catch up to him and he slows his pace for me.

"Jerk!"

"Bitch!"

 

We don't run the whole Glade, instead, we stop 2 3rds of the way at the lake to have a little rest.

Minho plops down, his right knee bent and his elbow on his knee and I sit beside him, my legs crossed and we share a smile. We weren't out of breath but the rest was good on my legs because I was right, that was running, not jogging and we didn't even do a warm up. I didn't want to experience pulling a muscle again like on my first day of being a runner. I woke up the next day and my legs ached and burned and I couldn't even put my heel on the ground without a pulling pain all up my leg. Sonya and Harriet teased me for months. Since then I've always stretched before a run.

"I need a drink" Minho pipes up a few minutes later.

"Shall we?" he asks as I look over at him. I nod and he get's up, yanking me up a second later.

"Hey Lex" He says playfully

"What?"

"Want a piggy back!"

 "Really?" I ask

"It's a one-time offer shank, take it or leave it" he says, adding a wink on to the end.

I laugh looking at him. he bends down on one knee, his back facing me and I shake my head. Well, I guess I'd be silly not to take this one time offer.

I climb onto his back and he grabs my thighs, jumping after he stands up to hold me more securely and I giggle, I actually giggle and we head for the homestead.

"Your heavy for a girl" he says as he puts me down outside the homestead

"How rude!" I say with a smile and he returns it, the type that crinkles his eyes, making him even more lovable.

Lovable? where'd that word come from? like a lovable puppy I guess.

After grabbing a drink and saying good night I head up to my bedroom with a smile on my face only to be swarmed with questions from Harriet and Brenda.

 

Outside in the Glade the next day, taking a break from work to teach archery everyone was either in one of two groups. My archery or Harriet's fighting that took place an hour every day.

The fighters made a large circle sometimes, other times people were just randomly fighting in twos around the area while we stayed away so no one accidentally got an arrow in the knee. 

I was aiming a shot up at a tree when I heard yelling. I thought it was my name but the yelling itself caught all our attention.

When Winston shouted again as he sprinted over to us I realised it was actually my name being yelled.

"Winston? what's wrong?" I shout back

He stops a good 12 feet away, catching his breath a little

"It's Jackson!"

 

Looking over the other side of the glade I see a few figures carrying someone over to the homestead. It must be Jackson.

By the time I have sprinted to the medhut as fast as I can, leaving Brenda and my students far behind there're a few people surrounding Jackson on the bed.

"Lexi, thank god, where's the serum?" Harriet asks

"I've got it" I gasp going straight over to the box we keep them in.

"Everybody move" Sonya says as I walk over to Jackson. Everyone moves out of the way and I look him over, trying to find the bite.

"His wrist" Molly says and I turn over the arm Mollys looking at to see the mark.

I inject the serum and finally people start leaving the room.

Molly and Michelle stay in here with me though. I hadn't spoken to Michelle much but I knew her face. Seems she has made good friends with Molly.

"I'm sick of these things" I mutter as I watch Jackson

"I'm lucky enough not to have been stung by one yet" Michelle says and me and Molly give her a look as we have both been stung.

The girls leave a few minutes later and I decide to stay with Jackson. I wasn't needed to teach archery, hell they all knew everything I had to teach, which wasn't a lot. I wasn't a professional, I taught myself when that small bow came up with supplies. I used it, made a bigger and better one, just doing what worked for me and Brenda was there to take over for me anyway.

I was really surprised come last meal that Teresa came in as I was about to leave, carrying 2 dishes of mash and fresh vegetables in her hands.

"I thought I'd bring you dinner, how's he doing?" She asks walking in, passing me my bowl

I smile in thanks and look towards him

"He's ok" I say and she gets the other stool and brings it over. I just watch her curiously for a minute as she sits beside me and starts eating her meal. I finally decide to do the same, it smelled good and I was hungry.

"So, that's Jackson, right?" She asks putting her empty bowl down after a few minutes of silence as we ate.

"Yeah" I say as I spoon in the last of my baby carrots.

"He's the one with your name"

I nod in answer

"He's who some of the girls call Doctor sexy, right?" Teresa asks with an amused smile on her face causing me to smile too

"Yeah" I admit and look to Jackson. His light brown hair was sticking to his forehead with sweat so I wipe his fringe away from his face.

"I can see why, guess you got lucky!" She says and I look at her annoyed for a second

"You think it's a pairing thing?" I ask

"I know it is!" She says confidently

"How do you know?" I ask intrigued

"Me and Thomas share memories, dreams, we knew each other even before the maze, then there're other couples, right? Frypan and Hannah, Steven and Christianna. I just know it's what it means" She says with a soft smile and I almost scoff at her face

"So what about Sonya and Newt, there easily the best couple here, the strongest"

"You're saying that because they are your friends" She says

"Aren't they your friends too?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm worried about them but I do hope it works out, Newts always been there for Thomas"

I look away from her and back to Jackson. Now I get why Minho doesn't like her, she was so sure of everything, it's almost like she's hiding something.

"You and Jackson would make a cute couple" She says a minute later and I look at her to see she's standing up. Yeah, you leave bitch I think bitterly.

"I hope his nightmare is better than mine" She says before leaving with a smile

I'm just left looking at the door confused. What the hell?

 

"Wow easy there stick!" I say sitting up when Jackson wakes up the next day. His eyes shot open, wide with fear, almost like he was about to be attacked by something.

"You're alright, you got stung, just a bad dream" I say going up to him, placing my hand on the back of his. It was like Deja vu the number of times I've had to calm people down when they woke up

He sighs deeply and rests his forehead on my shoulder and I smile giving his hand a small squeeze

"You ok?" I ask and he nods his head on my shoulder

"You want a drink?"

"Yeah" he says and moves back to sit up, leaning his back against the wall

"So that's a nightmare" He says after he downs his drink

"Afraid so" I say smiling at him softly

"That wasn't nice, and you've been through that twice" he says and I laugh

"A lot more than just two!" I say laughing "But there not so bad"

"How can you say that?" he asks amused

"Because they end!" I say giving him a smile and stand up

"I'll go and get you some fruit, it's still a couple hours before dinner" I state and Jackson nods and I leave the room

Once Jackson had eaten he sits outside with Aris while I help Newt, Sonya and a couple others in the gardens before dinner. 

Chris, although he can be a jerk decided we should all play a game with our free time. We all decided on tag and to make it more interesting made it girls against boys. Whichever team gets tagged the most wins, simple.

We were all still running around and laughing like idiots, well about 9 of us anyway, by the time the runners got back.

I was currently getting chased by Aris when the runners headed towards us.

"Tag her for me!" Aris yells, still a few feet behind.

I cling to the back of Minho when I get to them as they stop, looking at Aris like he was talking a foreign language. I try and catch my breaths as Aris arrives, giving me a challenging look and I laugh

"What the hell are you doing?" Minho asks, looking from us to other running Gladers

"Playing tag, tag her for me" Aris says

"That's cheating, they're not playing, they also make the numbers uneven" I state knowing out of the girls there was only me, Harriet, Sonya and Brenda left playing.

"Tag, you're it" Thomas says tapping me on the shoulder and I glare at him as he smiles at Aris

"Playing dirty huh" I say before tapping Minho, Thomas, Andy and Brett on the shoulder with a smirk.As soon as I see Aris and Thomas make a move I'm sprinting away.

I wish I never looked back when I saw every single one of them giving chase behind me, smiles on their faces.

Let's just say I don't get very far when I'm dived on. I'm not sure who tackles me first, but we roll, me landing on them on my back so I actually don't get hurt and then Thomas literally dives on me yelling pile on. He doesn't land on me hard though and he's laughing when Andy, Brett, and Aris collapse on us adding to the pileup.

"Oh my god" I croak as I'm getting crushed

"Can't breathe here shuck-heads" Minho yells from underneath me and they all roll off. Once the weights off me I roll to land on my back in-between Minho and Thomas and we all laugh and catch our breaths.

"Next time you have a day of playing tag I am definitely in" Thomas says a little out of breath. I look his way and he's laughing looking at me.

"No way, you're fast!" I admit and he smiles proudly

"Were all faster than you shank" Minho breathes and I look to him and nudge him and he smiles and I look back up to the sky, finding myself smiling surrounded by my friends. This place wasn't so bad after all.

 

"Ok, nap times over, need to write this number down on the map section" Minho says as he pushes himself up to stand

"you found the green number?" I ask excitedly

"Yeah, you coming slint-head?" He asks looking down at me

"Erm, yeah sure" I say sitting up and Minho holds his hand out for me. I grab and get hauled up. When I look back at the guys still lying down Thomas is smiling at me, wiggling his eyebrows. I blush and look down, letting go of Minho's hand as I stand straight and we start walking towards the lake.

We sit by the lake when we get there. We grabbed the paper and a pencil on the way and now Minho's writing down the number and what section it was under the list of the others.

"Done" Minho says putting the paper down and sighing over dramatically and landing on his back in the grass, his hands under his head. I laugh and join him lying down.

"Long run?" I ask

"Long day, those Lighters are getting braver" He states and I turn to face him worried

"What do you mean?" I ask concerned. He looks at me, his features showed worry for a second before he licked his bottom lip and looked away

"Just that they're getting braver, coming closer to the doors to greet us" he says with a shrug

"You killed one?"

"2"

"You all ok?" I ask

Minho looks at me and smiles

"Yeah" I smile relieved and he returns it, a bigger smile this time and we just smile at each other until finally our smiles fade and were just looking at each other and then suddenly it got weird, but in a comfortable way. We never just lay there looking at each other but we never held hands either until the other night, right here. I edge my hand closer to him without even realising, like my brain wasn't even asking my body for permission and just making me move. Minho's eyes drop to my hand and I follow his sight and notice he moves his own hand too so his fingers are lightly brushing against mine. I smile and move my fingers between his, entwining our fingers again like last time and Minho grips them looking back up to me.

His eyes meeting mine were small and curious, almost like he was scared to move but as soon as I give him a smile his features softens in a sweet smile and we both look up to the sky as butterfly's swarm my stomach.

 

"Hey guys, Fry's about to dish out our supper, you coming?" Teresa shouts from the other side of the huge body of water were lying near. Our hands rip apart instantly and I sit up to look at her. She smiles at us and then walks away like she didn't just ruin a moment between us.

"Food, can't wait, I am starving!" Minho says with an excited eyebrow wiggle and I smile as he holds his hand for me to take and he pulls me up to my feet.


	20. Chapter 20

"Hey Lexi, what you doing out here?, it's bloody freezing" Newt says with a friendly smile as he limps over to me sat outside the homestead that night.

I return the smile and look up to him as he stands in front of me, a smile still on his face.

"Just thinking" I say and Newts smile fades

"What about?" He asks genuinely and I smile. This is why I warmed to Newt, he has a kind heart.

"Honestly?" I say causing an eyebrow raise from Newt

"You can lie" he says stepping aside "But" he adds as he slowly lowers himself so he's sitting besides me, legs bent.

"You know I'll call you out on it"

I laugh and we both share a smile as he nudges me playfully.

"You're probably right Newt, but I don't wonna make you cold"

"Ahh I'll live, so, what's on your mind?" He asks making himself comfortable on the floor.

I smile looking down. Do I really tell him I've fallen for one of his best friends? I guess I have no choice

"Minho" I state with a smile looking at him. Newt grins, the type of grin that says about time and I look down again blushing

"That klunk for brains finally made a move?" he asks and I shake my head

"No no, wait what? did he say he was going to?" I ask, my heart pounding in my rib cage as I get excited

"No, just me and Thomas have a bet going" I roll my eyes and smile

"What's the bet?" I brave asking

"Thomas thinks he's never going to do anything about it but I'm betting on he will" Newt says with a nod and I find myself laughing

"So you think he likes me back?" I ask and Newt's grin is the biggest I've seen it and he starts laughing a little

"So you do like him?" 

"Oh god" I mutter and Newt puts his arm over my shoulder

"Listen here Lexi, Minho is a great guy, he may be the biggest mouthed shank in the glade but he also has the biggest heart there is!"

"So what's going on between the two of you, anything happen?" he asks just being pure noisy but I don't mind.

"Yeah but it's really weird" I state and Newt raised his curious brows so I continue.

"We held hands .. twice .. but it was weird like, we just did it, didn't even talk about it, just smiled and lay there holding hands"

Newt gives a warm smile

"If you ask me shank that's a step in the right direction, there's something blossoming with you two, I can feel it, now how about we go inside before we bloody freeze to death, yeah?" Newt says pulling me in more and I laugh

"Sonya's so lucky to have you Newt" I say leaning into my lanky friend and he laughs, his body vibrating against mine as I enjoy the warmth his body's providing.

"And you and Minho are both lucky to have each other, when it happens of course" I laugh and we both get up, heading inside. I send Newt a grateful smile before I head to bed and he nods before walking over to Sonya sat with Aris and hugging her from behind. I smile at the couple, my best friends and head upstairs, happy I had that talk with Newt. 

 

The next day was a long one. We spent the morning, after 3 sting attacks all happening in a matter of 20 minutes scouring the entire Glade to try and find a damn nest. Harriet and Teresa were the ones to find it up in a tree, a very tall one at that. Jackson and Chris climbed it. They both wrapped a bed sheet around it, trapping whatever mechanical monsters still buzzing inside and tied it securely, wrapping it a few times before lobbing it down for us to catch. Then we build a bon fire like a tee pee and put the bees nest in the middle. Newt poured a mason jar of his nasty juice on it to make sure it lights up and we set the bitch on fire. 

 

Me and Jackson ate our dinner in the medhut. Sonya was one to get stung and Newt had been by her side all day, holding her hand and brushing his thumb over her cheek and her hair. I sat opposite him after we had eaten. Jackson deciding he would take the empty bowls to Frypan.

Newt smiles up at me as I sit on the other side of the bed and I take out the bobble at the end of her hair and Newt watches without a word.

"Sonya taught me how to plat when I got here, at first I just thought she was being helpful, you know, teaching me a new skill" I say and chuckle to myself as I pull her plated hair apart and give it a gentle brush through.

"But it just turned out that Harriet just sucked at anything to do with hair, that's why she has dreads, less hassle" Newt smiles and I put the brush down and start to neatly plat her hair for her.

"So, she taught me so I could do her hair every morning for her, she just really likes people playing with her hair, I still did it for a while when we got here, until you stole her" I give Newt a little mean look and he smiles.

"She never told me that" he admits and I smile

"Let me teach you"

"Teach me to plat?" Newt questions

"Yeah, come here" I say nodding my head and Newt sighs but he slowly gets up and makes his way around the bed as I stand up, allowing him my seat.

I drag his stool and sit on it besides him

"That way tomorrow morning when she wakes up you can do her hair for her, I think she'd really like that" I say with a smile

"I'd like that too, so, where do I even begin?" He says looking at her beautiful blond hair with utter confusion on his tired face and I smile and begin to teach.

 

With all the beds taken, Newt on one stool and Jackson sat on the only other I was currently sat up at Sonya's bed, my arms and head on the mattress besides her head, Newt on the other side. I was falling asleep when the door opens, letting us know we have visitors, or possibly another patient.

"Hey man, we just heard from Harriet" I hear Thomas say so I don't even get up, I just open my eyes to see Thomas and Minho walking over to our bed.

"Happened this morning, so found anything out there?" Newt asks straight away knowing there was no need to dwell on Sonya being in that bed, she was sleeping and would wake up in the morning with nothing but a bad dream to show for it.

"Nope" Minho says and then he notices me and smiles. I return it and lean on my chin to smile at Thomas.

 

They don't stay too long, just a few minutes as they still had their running gear on and their harnesses. I leave with them when they decide to go and change and shower. I sit in the front room with Harriet and all the others waiting for last meal of the day while the runners showered and changed.

I spent dinner with everyone outside eating on the grass and some of the picnic tables. There was a chill in the air making me think it's winter time but hell if I know what the creators are doing by making us cold for no reason

 

 

It was only when I left the medhut to decide to go and shower the next day I realise no one is doing their designated job, instead people are lulling about, setting up a fire, getting food out, a fighting circle drew, guys getting their home made bongos out and Newt was currently carrying a case of jars to give out.

"Were having a party?" I ask the closest person to me which ended up being some girl I've barely spoken to.

"Yeah, there's another couple" She says just continuing to walk past me.

I look around, wondering who the new couple is.

"Please tell me the new couple don't share bloody names!" I say to Harriet as I notice her near the unlit pile of fire wood. She looks at me and smiles and I notice she's with Teresa, again.

"You're starting to sound like Newt" Teresa says but I just ignore her

"Yeah, they are" Harriet says, not seeming too bothered by it all. I sigh annoyed and just go to shower while I could.

 

Sonya and Aris come to the medhut to drag us to the party which neither of us was too bothered about but me and Jackson knew resistance was futile with these two once they ganged up together. 

I'm just grateful to see Minho, back from his run, his hair still damp from his daily shower. I smile and sit next to Thomas who's sat with him, along with Andy and Brett the other runners. Thomas gives me a welcome smile which I return and I share a look with Minho.

"So, how many numbers are left until we can get on to the next section?" I ask

"39" Minho mumbles looking at his hands in his lap

"Least we're one step closer to getting out of here" I say trying to cheer people up

"Yeah" Brett mumbles and I sigh

"Well aren't you lot a big bag of fun" I say and they all look at me, Minho and Thomas smiling

"So whos the new couple anyway?" Thomas asks me

"Don't know, don't care" I admit with a shrug

"Why?" Andy asks me curiously at the hate I said it with

"Because their proving my theory wrong, mine, Sonya's and Newts!" 

"Theory?" Thomas asks with one raised brow

"That the names on our necks mean you're shucking soul mates, I think it's just a load of klunk!" I admit and Thomas nods

"Yeah, me too but at least people that believe that are actually happy for once, surely we can give them that" Thomas says and I smile at him.

"That's what this stupid party's for" Minho says and Thomas shrugs

"Guys, come on, dance!" Harriet yells and we all look over to see Sonya, Harriet, Brenda, Serah, Teresa and Molly dancing. I smile and Thomas stands up

"You dance?" Andy says in a teasing way

"Hey don't jip my moves!" Thomas says causing me to chuckle and I also get up as Thomas makes his way over to them, dancing away causing the girls to laugh.

"Coming?" I ask Minho. He raises a pointed brow

"One time offer shank" I say causing Minho to smirk

"Ahh what the hell, we only live once right" he says taking me by surprise. I never expected Minho to dance but he gets up and I lead the way to the dancing area. There's so many of us dancing, bodies swaying, happy smiles, twirls, the flickering of the flames and the up beat of the drums. It was fun. Brenda gives me a swirl and I fancy bow Sonya and then I dance with Minho. He wasn't bad and it didn't look awkward, he was actually having fun, spinning me around and smiling. Finally he and Thomas called it a night, joining Frypan, Winston, Hannah and Serah on the cut down tree trunks and I spot Jackson sat with Amy, Molly and Michelle. When he looks up to me I give him a smile which he returns and he gets up, saying something to the girls and walking over.

"Ladies, Aris" he says as he joins us and we all greet him with laughs and smiles

He dances with me, making small talk every now and then before pulling me away to sit near the fire, just the two of us. I rest my legs after all the dancing and have a drink of water, deciding not to drink tonight, not after my last hangover, no thank you.

 

After talking a while about the patients we've had and our theories on the waspers and the numbers he decides to call it a night.

"What, the nights still early" I say and he smiles standing up

"I'm bored, I'd rather sit in the warmth under my blanket" he says and I pout

"Fine, old man" I say standing up too

"Old man, I'm probably younger than you!" He states and I give him a look to say 'really?'

"Ok maybe you're younger than me but I'm still only what, 18? I'm far from a grandpa" he says and I laugh

"Not mentally you're not, old man" I tease

Jackson smiles and I laugh.

"Ahh go inside grandpa, before your hip gives in and I'm dragging you in"

"Well I can't count on a hip replacment in here can I?!" Is his argument causing me to laugh and he gives a final smile before heading for the homestead. I turn around to come face to face with Teresa, a smile on her face.

"Cute" She says 

"What?" 

"Your flirting"

I scoff and eye Minho and Newt sat on the log talking

"We wasn't flirting, it's called having a sense of humour, you should try it" I say before walking towards my friends.

"Hey guys, am I interrupting" I ask as I sit between them both

"No, not at all" Thomas says, each word coming out slowly and full of sarcasm

Minho laughs giving Thomas a look

"Just talking about the maze" Minho answers for me and I roll my eyes and sigh

"Seriously, can you guys forget about the maze for one shucking minute and enjoy the party?" I ask

"This party sucks!" Minho answers honestly, Thomas nodding in agreement as we look over the Glade, no one dancing or smiling anymore, everyone just looked tired and the cause of the party wasn't even anywhere to be seen.

"I need a leak" Minho announces, standing up

"Good to know" I say with a smile and he winks at me as I see Thomas stand up too

"Coming to hold it for me shank, even if I was gay I could get a better-looking guy than you!" Minho teases his friend and Thomas rolls his eyes, he was too used to his best friends mouth

"Like I'd want to go out with you" he mutters as they head towards the toilets

"Please, you know you can't resist me, it's ok, you haven't got to admit it, I know" I hear Minho tease causing me to laugh as they get further away.

"What's up shank?" Brenda asks with a smile as she plonks herself down besides me, nudging my arm playfully.

"Nothing, Shank" I say nudging her back and she laughs and holds up her mason jar

"Want some?"

"No, thank you" I say with a smile at my friend and she shrugs, taking a large sip.

She then looks over at Teresa with hatred and I look from her back to Brenda.

"You ok there Brenda?" I ask

"Fine" She says unconvincingly and I smile

"You can talk to me you know" I say and she looks at me, sadness in her eyes

"I really like Thomas but he really likes Teresa" She says glumly and I'm surprised that she just out right said what's on her minds. Liquid courage I'm guessing. I sigh sadly and put my arm around her. Newt did it to me and it made me feel better so I knew it would help Brenda.

"I wish she never popped up, we were getting really close before she arrived, we'de laugh together, sit chatting for a while when he'd get back from runs, now Teresa's always with him"

"I don't know what to say really" I admit wishing I was as good as this as Newt, Harriet and Sonya was, they always knew the right thing to say

"Try telling Thomas how you feel, try and find out how he feels, if you feel confident enough make a move, just something simple like a hug that last a bit longer than usual, a kiss on the cheek if he does something nice or something" I suggest and Brenda looks at me with her puppy dog eyes. 

"It's no use, look at her with her long hair and pretty smile, I have no chance"

"Now that's just ridiculous, you're gorgeous, if I was a lesbian I'd be with you, remember" I say giving her a wink and she smiles

"Thomas is a pretty awesome guy, also very nice looking on the eyes, things'll work out" I state and Brenda laughs

"Hey, hands off, I don't need more competition" She warns and I laugh

"Don't worry, there's someone else here I find a lot nicer on the eyes" I say with a smile

"Minho"

"Yeah" I say and she smiles

"Least you have no competition" She says grumpily and I pull her in to me a bit closer, giving her a little shake for her mood.

"Like I said, make a move, flirt a little" I say and she looks at her mason jar and goes quiet so I stay quiet, leaving her to think for a while. 

 

A few minutes later Thomas and Min arrive back. The guys head towards the big group sat around the slowly dying fire, chatting away amongst themselves.

"Shall we go and join the others?" I ask her and she looks up noticing our friends are all sat near the fire. She nods and we head over, sitting beside Frypan and Hannah.

I was falling to sleep on Brenda's shoulder when people finally started heading inside. Brenda was nearly falling asleep too, her head on mine. 

"You two are adorable" Harriet says to us standing in front of us with a smile

Brenda looks up at her and smiles

"She's my babe, we're lovers now" Brenda jokes and Harriet laughs

"You're both straighter than those walls" She says and I smile and take Harriet's hand and then I help Brenda up.

Brenda walks ahead with Harriet and Aris and I just stare at the ground as I walk. I was tired, we have stayed up later than usual. getting up tomorrow isn't going to be fun.

I feel the presence of someone stepping beside me and I don't even have to look to know it's Minho.

We share a small smile and suddenly Brenda throws up and Harriet rubs her back and I see Thomas leave Teresa's side to see if she's ok making me smile. I really hope they get together.

"Not going to check on your girlfriend" Minho teases.

"My girlfriend has wondering eyes" I say and Minho laughs

"Yeah, and Thomas is oblivious, everyone sees it but him" Minho states 

"I didn't think anyone knew" I admit

"They spend all their time together, Brenda just makes it obvious" Minho admits and I laugh

"Yeah, Brenda is more forward than she thinks"

We enter the homestead with the crowd of other Gladers and I head for the stairs. I'm about to say goodnight when I realise Minho is walking with me.

I give him a curious look but he doesn't see it so we walk up the stairs in silence.

I open my bedroom door and invite him in. I light the lantern with the half gone candle and place it away from anything on the ground and close the glass door. I look up to see Minho picking something up by the right wall near the door. Oh god

He holds the decaying flower in his hand and waves it

"You still have it?" He asks slightly stunned and taken back for a minute

"Err, yeah I guess I just never got around to throwing it away" I admit feeling embarrassed he saw I have kept on to the small blue flower he gave to me. I didn't want to throw it away, it held a nice memory to it and those blue flowers will always remind me of Minho.

"Well I guess I had better give you another one, need to warn those Gladers you're whacked"

"Shut up" I say and Minho places the flower down before it completely crumbles to dust.

It's quiet between us for a minute and it almost feels uncomfortable. Minho couldn't keep still, he never could anyway but tonight he kept figiting and looking anywhere but me. I hear footsteps on the stairs as I'm about to ask if hes ok and he looks back out of the door then looks back to me.

"Well, looks like Brenda's emptied her stomach now, See ya tomorrow stick" he says and I smile and he leaves the room and seconds later Harriet and Sonya bring Brenda in and I notice Thomas standing at the door.

"She gonna be ok?" He asks as they place her on the bed

"Yeah, she should be" Sonya says

"She's just gonna have one hell of a hangover in the morning" Harriet says with a smile and Thomas nods

"You can come in and sit with her for a minute to check if you want?" I ask slightly teasingly and Thomas looks at me, his eyes widen and he shakes his head

"No, no it's cool, erm, night girls" he says and leaves the room and we all laugh.

"He so likes her" Harriet says

"It's cute" Sonya says with a warm smile

"He's cute" Brenda says through a burp and we all share looks and burst into laughter again.


	21. Chapter 21

The runners burst through the medhut door a week later, changing the quiet dead of night into a whirr of sound and panic. Minho and Andy carry in Brett and place him on the nearest empty bed.

"Lexi!" Thomas says and I get up off the stool from where I was sat nearly falling to sleep and I grab some Serum. Jackson was having the afternoon off to hang out with Aris. It's not like the patients need full-time attention.

I inject the serum in his neck and the guys relax a little bit

"Stung in the maze?" I ask and Thomas nods

"It's a good job there's so many of us, taking it in turns to carry" Thomas says

"Yeah, I dunno how you got Thomas out of there alone" Andy says to Minho

"Me neither, guy weighs a tonne" Min teases before smiling at the brunette.

I look to Brett then back to the guys.

"He'll be fine now, I'm sure he'll be grateful for you guys" I say and Thomas smiles, putting his hand on my shoulder and turning to leave.

"I think Brenda said she wants to hang out" I say teasingly to Thomas and he looks at me and nods before he and Andy leave

"He'll be fine" I repeat to Minho and he nods

"I know" he says sitting on the stool and I smile and sit on the other near where Brett is lying 

"Where's Jackson?" He asks looking round

"With Aris somewhere" I shrug and Minho nods and then leans his head back against the wall

"How far in did he get stung?" I ask

"About half hour away from the doors"

"Could have been worse then" I admit and Minho just nods his head the best he can, his eyes closed and I smile just looking at him having a well deserved rest. I grab him a drink from the shelving unit Aris built and hand it to him. He nods gratefully then chugs it down in a matter of seconds.

"Thanks" he says as I take the empty jar.

When I look back his eyes are closed again

"There's a free bed if you want to lie down?" I ask and he raises his head and looks to the bed

"I should really go shower" He mutters and the image of Minho leaning against the shower wall, water spraying over his head and down his chest flashes through my mind but it's gone as soon as it appears and I look down, ashamed I just thought of Minho in the shower.

I look back up and thankfully Minho's eyes are closed again and he's breathing calmly. His arms crossed, enhancing his arm muscles.

"Yeah, you stink" I tease playfully and he smirks

"Not as bad as you shank"

"I smell just fine thank you" I say and he opens his eyes to look at me then pushes himself up with a lot of effort and sighs

"Shame you're working, you could join me" He says and I laugh

"Like I'd want to!" I say not looking into his eyes and I hear him laugh

He steps closer to me with a smile and I look up to him. His eyes are crinkled, dimples making an appearance, like he's challenging me to say other wise but I don't back down.

He laughs and nudges me as he passes me and I smile as he leaves without a look-back.

I shake my head and sit down on the stool. Oh my god.

 

I don't get to spend much time with Minho the next two weeks, he's always running and I'm always working with either Jackson or doing archery but it was the day of the greenie arrival today so I was hoping to spend some time with Minho and Thomas tonight as I never see them.

The greenie came up, Newt letting me do the tour for once. It was a quiet shy short guy with short black hair. He didn't look much and he looked a little younger than the majority of us here. I felt sorry for the guy, why was he sent up here?

With me giving him the tour the guy stuck around me most of the day when he wasn't with Winston. It was understandable. Every greenie sticks to Newt for the first day or two when they arrive. I try and get Aris and Jackson to speak with him and show him a few things and it seemed to open the guy up a bit, causing him to talk a little more.

When the fire was finally lit that night and the runners were back from the shower room with their running gear packed away for tomorrow and clean clothes on Thomas and Minho sit with me Aris, Jackson and the greenie.

"Your the greenie huh, I'm Thomas" Thomas says with a smile and the guy nods

"And that shuck-head is Minho" Thomas says pointing him out and Minho smirks then nods at the greenie

"S'up"

"I'd tell you my name but I don't know it" the guy says and Thomas gives him a sympathetic smile as they sit down

"It'll come back to ya, give it a little more time" Thomas reassures the newbie

We all grab some food from Frypan and we watch as the new guy tastes bacon for the first time.

"Good right" Aris says and we all smile at the guy nodding

The runners talk to the green bean for a while, asking him about his couple hours working with Winston and what he thinks of the place. Then Newt takes him away to show him the window in the wall to see if they can spot a Griever. Poor kid was about to start having nightmares, guess it's best he knew the dangers though.

The poor kid comes back with a paler face and Harriet takes his hand, telling him the star of the party should dance with her. She had a way with calming the new people down though she was used to calming girls the dancing still worked with this guy and it was nice when he told Harriet his name and we all cheered for the kid. Seems his name is Tyler.

 

"How come you're not dancing tonight?" Minho asks and I shrug

"Guess I can't be bothered tonight" I state and he nods looking around the Glade.

"So does that mean you can't be bothered to jog?" he asks with a smile

 

Before I know it I'm sprinting past Minho, not knowing where the energy is coming from. I guess running always made me feel alive, running the maze, the wind pushing past me, my heart beating rapidly, it always made me feel good and I enjoy the adrenalin when I over take the runner. He laughs shaking his head behind me and pushes forward to run besides me.

"Thought you jogged?" He asks

"I do, just felt like running" I shout and we continue on for a while.

We stop at the lake, the light from the fire across the Glade shone on the body of the water, reflecting orange lights across it. It looked pretty. We sit down and catch our breathe a little.

I fall back and sigh happily. Looking at the black sky, no stars to be seen.

"We need to do that more often" I state and Minho nods with a smile

"You'll never beat me though shank, too slow" He states and I roll my eyes at the keeper.

We stay there for a while, just lying there, the comfortable silence and cool night beeeze relaxing our bodies. I was almost falling asleep when I hear Minho get up. I watch him as he takes a few steps towards the trees, he bends down and picks something up from the floor and he comes to stand in front of me.

He brings his hand up to admire his find in the moonlight and I just catch the glimpse of a small flower before he kneels in front of me to tuck it above my ear and I try not to blush.

His hand lingers on my face as he's pulling away and I look up to him and smile.

"Come on" he says pointing his head towards the homestead and I smile and we head inside, staying close.

We both grab a jar of water from the main room and I watch as Minho heads towards his bedroom without so much as a glance back or good night so I follow him without giving it much thought.

His rooms exactly what you'd expect. A mattress on the floor with a few thin sheets and a makeshift pillow. A pile of clean clothes in one corner and his running gear in another ready for the slackers to collect tomorrow morning. And a single lantern in the middle of the room. He takes his shoes off and sits on his bed as I close the door behind me.

"Still refusing to move back in with Thomas I see" I state and he shrugs

"Never said I'd move back in with him, I'm not sharing a room with anyone I don't trust"

"Oh come on Min" I say sitting on the floor next to his mattress

"It's not like she's going to slit your throat in the middle of the night"

"You never know" he says pointing to me and I laugh pushing his finger away

"I highly doubt it!" I say

"Either way it's nice having a place to myself, it's awesome sleeping with no one snoring near by" he says and I laugh

"That'd be nice. Brenda snores sometimes" I admit and he smiles before falling back to lie on his bed with a content sigh.

"Want me to leave?" I ask willing to get up

"Not unless you want to, you tired?" he asks looking over at me and I shake my head as a no, forcing back a yawn and he smiles.  
I turn so my backs against the mattress and Minho and then push myself down, using the mattress as a pillow lying on the floor.

"So I haven't asked you yet" I say looking at his ceiling

"Asked me what?" He asks and I can feel his eyes on me

"What's your theory on the names?" I ask tilting my head left to look at him

"Don't know, don't give a klunk" He says

"You're not even curious?"  
Minho shrugs.

"Well yeah, I have some girls name on my neck I don't even know, it's unnerving but I don't know if we'll ever actually find out" he states

"Yeah you're right, even if we get out here and meet someone behind all of this who's saying they're not just going to send us all straight back up here again. new place, new faces" I sigh and think about my last nightmare. How Harriet and Minho died and then I was send up the box, alone. It still creped me out now, just the thought of losing everyone I know and having to start again.

"New faces, you think we wont be put together again?" he asks and I sigh. With Minho saying that it makes knowing we could be sent up here a third time even more realistic, Minho was always so optimistic.

"I don't know, but it scares me" I admit in a whisper

"Hey" Minho says making me look at him again  
I watch him put his hand out towards me. His palm outstretched and he nods at his hand for me to take it.  
I grab it and he squeezes my hand.

"That's not going to happen!" He says it so reassuringly I really want to believe him but I don't know if I can. I smile and he pulls on my hand making me smile and climb onto his mattress to lie next to him.

"I mean it Lexi, we all have each other and no matter where we end up after here we'll be together" I smile and nod and look down to our hands which are still together and I squeeze his hand.

"Thank you" I say and he smiles and we look at each other for a while.

"Maybe I should kick you out" Minho says making me furrow my brows. What, he wanted me to leave? I feel saddened, I didn't want to leave his side just yet but then I realise he's smiling

"Last time we lay down together I ended up waking up in the med hut"  
I burst into laughter and Minho's just smiling at me.

 

I wake up with the familiar feeling of a body besides me. I smile and push up against the warm body. It didn't feel like Harriet, maybe it was Brenda, It's then I realise nothing smelled familiar. There was a musky smell,a manly smell. My eyes open and I see everything clearly. The back of Minho's head, his always perfect hair a little messy and the name in ink that makes my emotions go haywire. We're in his room and the blankets underneath us. Shit we fell asleep. It was still dark in the room but it wasn't night time dark, it was early morning dark. I turn on to my back and stretch wondering what time it was. 5am maybe. The guys would be waking up within the hour to get ready for running.

I need to leave before anyone sees me leaving his room, god knows what people would be saying about us, oh no, Harriet and Brenda would know I didn't come to bed last night.

I climb off the bed and make my way towards my shoes by his wall. When I bend to pick them up I hear

"Good morning me" I straighten up instantly and turn around to glare at Minho. He's smiling looking at me and I roll my eyes

"I'm gonna go" I whisper

Minho looks at his arm at his runners watch he wears all the time.

"It's like 20 past 4" he sighs and closes his eyes again

Ok, so I wasn't great at time guessing but still I was right in it being stupidly early.

"I still need to go, what would people think if they see me walking out of your room with you?" I say and Minho opens his eyes with a smile

"Who cares, those lazy shanks are still asleep when us runners wake up anyway, no ones going to see you" He states and I sigh

"Why didn't you wake me up?" I ask realising I didn't actually want to go

"Cause I didn't know you fell asleep, thought I was out before you" he says and I frown.

"Oh" 

Minho laughs at me and climbs under his blanket, lying on his back.

"I know you want to cuddle me" he says, his eyes still closed and I glare at him, knowing he'd feel it if anything and he's smiling

"No, I want to sleep!" I say suppressing a yawn

"With me!" he states, giving me a wink as I almost choke on mid air

"Thought the world wasn't ready for mini Minho's yet" I say trying not to laugh and wake people up, knowing Newt and Sonya were only next door

"All I said was sleeping, am I just too irresistible for you" he says wiggling his eyebrows and I have to laugh then. I bite my lip to stop it and shake my head and head towards the bed

"Believe what you want shank"

Minho holds the blanket up for me and I climb into bed, turning my back on him and he laughs before turning his back on me, our backs pressed together and I smile

"You so want me" He whispers and I kick him lightly and smile, easily falling back to sleep with Minho besides me, his smell and warmth making it all that much easier to drift away.

 

I wake up hearing someone change behind me and my eyes snap open. The side of the beds empty and I swallow a lump. I wanted to turn around so badly as I heard Minho pull his trousers up and I don't even feel bad, who wouldn't want to see that. When Minho's changed he kicks the mattress lightly

"Hey shank, gonna sleep all day?" I hear him say and I turn around, throwing him evils, and not just for the rudeness, he was fully clothed. 

I sit up and wipe the sleep from my eyes.

The homestead was still silent, everyone clearly still asleep.

"What time is it?" I ask

"Time for you to go back to bed .. your bed!" I laugh and get out of bed

"You're the one that invited me back into your bed, maybe you like waking up in a hospital bed" I tease grabbing my shoes for the second time that morning.

"Yeah, love it shank. you ready?" I nod and Minho opens his bedroom door for me and I run back to the bed, grabbing my small blue flower and Minho smirks as we leave the room.

Entering the next room which lead to the stair way there were Gladers all crammed into the room, all in sleeping bags. I try so hard to be quiet, looking at people as I try not to tread on them and wake them up.

"Come back in one piece" I whisper to Minho as we reach the front door

"But then you can't fix me up" he whispers back and I roll my eyes and push him

"See you later klunk-head"

He smiles and leaves the house and I quietly head up the stairs. I nearly have a heart attack when  half way up Thomas' door opens. 

Thomas sees me and raises a curious brow at me. I take a deep breath and carry on up the stairs.

"Where you been?" he whispers as I reach him

"To the toilet" I lie and he nods

"Be careful out there" I say and he smiles

"I'm always careful" I nod and we share a smile before he's quietly going down the stairs.

 

I change quietly, not wanting to wake Harriet or Brenda and I leave the room. I was awake and I didn't see the point in having another half an hour of sleep so I leave the room, have a wash and go and check on the patients in the med room.

"Hey" Jackson says, entering the room not long after

"Where'd you disappear to last night?" He asks

"No where, was just sat with Minho at the lake" I say and he nods. not asking any more on the subject

"How are they all?" he asks looking at the two Gladers we have in here

"Fine" I admit

"Frypans just cooking breakfast, wonna head out in the sun and wait for it, don't think there gonna wake up until atleast 10" Jackson says and I nod and we leave the homestead.

Everyone was practually outside. Newt and Sonya were watering the vegitable patch together while I spotted Harriet, Aris, Teresa and Molly sat together near Frypan. A few Gladers were wondering around the Glade, cleaning the place up a little while others sunbathed. It was a peaceful morning, like always.

Sonya smiles at me and I smile back then she taps Newt on the shoulder then comes running over to me. As she's running Harriet looks at her then to me and runs towards me too.

"What?" Jackson asks and I shrug before they got to me having no idea.

"Hey you" Sonya says with a dirty wink and suddenly I know exactly what this is about.  
Harriet comes to us then and smiles

"So?" Harriet says, hands on her hips with a smile on her face.  
I shake my head trying not to smile

"Oh my god" Sonya says then she looks at Jackson

"We're just going to steal her for a minute" She says and Jackson shrugs with a smile and heads towards Tyler the new kid who was sat with Chris and a few others.

"You stayed with Minho didn't you!" Harriet accuses and I go to lie but then realise I didn't want to. I smile and nod.

"Oh my god, what happened!" Harriet asks as Sonya's smiling at me excitedly as we sit down on our own away from anyone

"Nothing" I say, letting the disappointment show

"Nothing?" Sonya says, also disappointed

"Yeah, I mean I slept in his room, in his bed but we didn't do anything, like at all, we just slept" I say and then smile.

"How do you sleep in a guys bed and have nothing happen?" Harriet asks and Sonya looks at me, willing me to answer.

"We talked, I told him that I was scared to lose you all, about my nightmare I had the second time I got stung and well, he pulled me on to his bed, held my hand and just told me thats not going to happen, then we just fell to sleep like it"

"I feel like I'm going to throw up unicorns and rainbows and candy" Harriet says

"Ooh candy, I hope you do, anyway. . . " Sonya says whacking her friend on the shoulder. "That's really sweet Harriet, and he didn't try anything meaning he is a gentleman!" Sonya says

"You're only saying that because Newt hasn't made a move yet" Harriet says and Son rolls her eyes

"He's, we're both kinda, new to this, there's no rush, right" Sonya says to me for back up and I hold my hands up

"I'm single, keep me out of this one" I state and Harriet laughs

"Yeah but not for long!" Our leader states and I smile

"So you and Newt haven't, done anything yet?" I ask Sonya.  
She refused to talk about her and Newt behind closed doors but clearly Harriet guessed right.  
She sighs

"No, I mean I want to, I think I'm ready you know, but there's too much shit to think about, beetle blades, those shuckers watching ya know, it's unnerving, also there's the whole first time thing, It's awkward and he's really scared of hurting me and changing things between us, it's just all a bit much" Sonya admits quietly between us and Harriet gives her a small smile.

"Try foreplay"  
We all burst into laughter at the way Harriet just came out with that and Sonya punches her lightly on the arm

"You guys suck" Son says, a blush on her face and we hug her.

"Lover boys watching" I say giving Newt a smile as he looks over

"Go on, can't keep him waiting" Harriet teases. Sonya rolls her eyes and goes back over to Newt.

 

 

 

When it was time for the monthly Greenie to arrive I was currently doing Archery. Jackson surprised me today by coming to me instead of Harriet for the fighting class, he asked if I could teach him. He usually has fighting lessons if there is no patients, like today. We carried on doing Archery as the others surrounded the box. I didn't want to watch this month. I'd get to meet the woman tonight at the party for her.

By the time the rest of the archery team came back, telling us about the new girl with shoulder length blond hair who wept like a child Jackson was starting to get annoyed. He hadn't hit the tree once with his so far 8 arrows.

"Come here" I say as he returns with his arrow. I step aside him and help him draw his arrow. I kick his leg a little, making them pull apart a little more and place my hands on his, helping them stay still. 

"Now take a deep breath and keep your fingers even. When you let go, release them at the same time, that's where you're going wrong, releasing them at different times is making the rope wobble, you ready?" I ask and Jackson looks at me and then nods, looking back to the target

"3 2 1" I say and he lets go and hits the target.

Brenda, Amy and Tyler cheer and Jackson rolls his eyes

"I only hit the target cause you helped" he says, still a little annoyed but he had a small smile on his face.

"You let the rope go, not me, that was mostly you my friend" I say and he looks to the target and he smiles and I smile too. I loved helping people and I loved seeing people getting better at their archery. It made my day.

Tyler was talking about me to everyone as we sat by the fire for the party, he was impressed with my archery it seemed.

"I have to admit Lexi, I think you made Jackson's day" he says and I eye Jackson stood around the fighting circle and I smile.

"Jackson, I thought he fought?" Thomas asks

"He usually does, decided to try out archery today" Harriet explains.

"Wonder why" Teresa says eyeing me with a smile and I narrow my eyes at her

"Why?" Tyler asks confused and Teresa laughs

"Oh come on, doctor sexy has a thing for the archery teacher" She insists and Tyler oh's like it's obvious

"No he doesn't!" I say

"You did look a little cosy earlier" Amy pipes up and I glare at her for saying shit like that with Minho sat only 2 spaces from me 

I notice the runner eye Jackson and he then looks down, playing with a stone in his hands. He wasn't even bothered.

"That's called teaching!" Brenda says to Amy like she's an idiot and Amy looks down and mumbles a "Just saying what I saw"

"What do you mean looked cozy"? Teresa asks the small girl I couldn't help but hate as much as I tried to like her.

Amy doesn't say anything, too scared to now Brenda had scorned her.

"She did that to all of us" Brenda says

"Did what?" Teresa asks curiously

"Stand behind or besides us, helping us hold the bow, where to aim, how to stand, it's first lesson" Brenda says and I feel like sticking my tongue out to Teresa. The brown haired girl just smiles and I give her an evil glare. She catches me but just smiles at me. I really see now why Minho hates her. Even without trying she can ruin everything.

"I thought you and Jackson share names" Tyler says speaking up and I roll my eyes

"Yeah we do" I say and Minho looks at me. I sigh and look into the fire we're sat near

"So doesn't that mean?" Tyler asks, not needing to finish the question

"It means nothing" I say getting annoyed

"Who's name you got anyway?" Thomas asks and Tyler pulls a face as I exhale lightly, grateful the attentions gone from me.

"A Rebecca" he says

"We don't have a Rebecca" Brenda says and Tyler shrugs again 

"Yet" Thomas says with a smile and I smile too.

"Well I don't know about you lot but I'm going to beat up all the boys" Harriet says causing us all to smile as she walks over to the fighting circle.

Newt, Sonya and the new greenie girl walk over to us after a while

"Guys I'd like to officially introduce you all to the new Green bean, everybody this is Becky!"

We all look at Tyler and he looks at us all with a strange look

"What?" he asks us all

"Becky, as in Rebecca?" Teresa asks the new girl, The new girl nods and Tyler smiles shaking his head

"Well Becky, this here is Tyler!" Teresa says and I roll my eyes as they both smile at each other

Sonya laughs as she moves the girls hair and nods to Newt and Newt smiles and rolls his eyes

"Doesn't mean anything" Newt says to Sonya and Son shrugs and takes Newt's hand and they walk away, leaving Tyler and the girl smiling at each other

 

Tyler pops into the medhut the next day just before dinner to tell me about his morning. He was easily becoming someone I felt the need to protect and look after. He was like the little brother I've never had, always telling me about his day and generally wanting to talk with me, it was nice.

Me and Tyler leave the med room to get some fruit for a patient due to wake up soon and when we return Teresa is there, talking to Jackson. She looks at us when we enter and we both share a look. Teresa smiles and then says goodbye to Jackson leaving me and Tyler stood there staring after her.

"What was that about?" I ask confused, she had no reason to come to the med hut.

"Nothing" he says with a smile and I give him a curious look

"Well she didn't come here for nothing" I say closing the door behind us

"She just wanted to know how to make my herbal tea" he says and I eye him warily as he goes about sorting through our limited supplies. Me and Tyler share a look, we didn't trust her.

 

"Wow!" I say sitting up, causing Harriet and Brenda who were both besides me, me being the middle spoon last night to stir. Waking up to see Sonya sat at the end of the bed smilng was a little unnerving.

"What?" Harriet says, sitting up with me and she smiles when she sees Sonya 

"What's up?" Harriet asks her best friend

Sonya's smile grows

"Nothings wrong!" She beams. Me, Harriet and Brenda all share confused looks when suddenly Sonya's diving on us, hugging us all.

"We did it!" She says and I smile hugging my friend back.

 

"So?" Harriet says a moment later once we had all calmed down and Brenda was fully awake now

"It felt really uncomfortable and weird but it was also, nice, you know, intimate and Newt seemed to enjoy it" She smiles and Harriet and Brenda frown, Brenda muttering "Gross"

I just laugh

"So is it something you can see yourself doing again?" I ask her and she smiles

"Yeah, It wasn't that bad, it's got to get better though, right?"

"According to Emily and Samantha it does, orgasms are better than chocolate, apparently" Harriet says and I go back to think of our old friends we lost in the last Glade on our last day. those two were so madly in love with each other, I really hoped they'd make it. It's silent for a minute as we think of our fallen friends.

"If they enjoyed it so can you" Harriet finally says and Brenda smiles

"Yeah but girls don't have . . . " Brenda says and we all smile and Harriet wiggles her fingers. Brenda yells eww and lobs her pillow at Harriet and it leads to a pillow fight. We stop when the door opens to see Teresa stood there.

"You girls gonna play all day, you're missing breakfast"

Suddenly Harriet lobs a pillow at her and she smiles, picking it up and lobs it back, joining in with us. We all collapse on the bed, catching our breathes laughing a few minute later.

"Ok come on, I'm starving" Harriet says, not liking the idea of missing out on food.

Newt greets Sonya with the most heart throbbing smile when he sees us all walking over to the food table, he looks down afterwards from his spot at the tomato plants chewing his bottom lip, the smile still on his face and I side hug Sonya as we walk seeing his cheeks go a little red.

"You two are shucking adorable" Brenda says

"I would love to have what you have" I say and Harriet nods in agreement as we all 'aww'

"Stop it you guys, you're making me feel like a child" 

"Children don't do naughty things in the dead of the night" Brenda says causing us all to laugh

 

 

It was last meal I finally got to see Minho properly. I hadn't spent time with him for a while now, not since Rebecca's welcome party

I nod for him to sit next to me and he does, squeezing between me and Aris. 

"Were half way through section 2 now, we should come across the number soon" Thomas says sitting beside Brenda

"Yeah, only another 100 days!" Minho mutters before tucking into his meal causing Thomas to sigh. 

And that was all I really got to spend with Min before he went off to shower with the other runners and I spent the last half an hour with Jackson cleaning up the med room for the night.

Coming out of the med room with Jackson I see Minho and the other runners, laughing about something Andy was currently saying.

"Hey Lexi" Andy says waving to me as I didn't see him during dinner

"Hey" I say with a smile

"Jackson" Andy says and Jackson nods a smile as me and Minho look at each other. I give him a smile and he only really half returns it before looking away and saying a good night to his friends before he heads to the homestead at a faster pace than the rest of us.

I decide to catch up with Minho, something was defiantly up there.

"Where you going?" Jackson asks me

"To check on Minho" I answer

"He has been a little off lately" Brett states

"what do you mean?" I ask, his statement keeping me from chasing after him. Brett shrugs

"He just seems distant"

"I'm sure doctor Lexi can make him feel all better" Andy teases causing me to smile

"Shut up Andy!" I threat before taking after Minho again. He had already entered the Homestead. 

 

When I get to his bedroom door I knock lightly. Minho opens the door seconds later and I'm greeted by his naked chest in my face. oh wow!

His eyes widen and he picks up his shirt from his bed, turning it from inside out as he asks me

"What's up?"

You're very distracting, that's what's up!

"Erm, just wondering if you're ok" I ask and Minho looks at me, his blue shirt in his hands as he pulls a face

"Why wouldn't I be?" he asks looking at me

"I dunno, you tell me!" I say with an ounce of worry in my voice as I concentrate on my friend and not his drool worthy pecks and muscular arms. Oh god, is it me or is it getting hot in here.

"I'm good, really" he says and this time the smile reaches his eyes. I smile and look down

"Anything else?" He asks and I shake my head looking up.

Wow years of running have defiantly done his body some good

"No" I say shaking my head again and he smiles looking down then back up at me

"Want me to put my top back on?" He asks, a big smile on his face

"Erm, no, I mean.." Hell no! 

Minho laughs shaking his head

"So you like it off, right, good to know" he winks and I finally snap out of it

"You are so big headed!" I state and he shrugs

"What can I say, I'm gorgeous!" I laugh but don't disagree

He lobs his shirt back down on his mattress and smiles

"So, did you come here to check on me or check me out? or both?" He asks crossing his arms

"Check ON you!" I state argumentatively and he nods

"Sure"

"Shut up klunk brains" I say and he laughs

"Look Lexi, I'm good, promise, I don't know why you think other wise, do I look bad to you?" he asks putting his arms out and I shake my head.Is that a trick question because you look fine, like really fine. I sigh. I need to stop getting distracted by his good looks. Minho's smiling at me knowingly and I roll my eyes

"I've just barely seen you this past week" I state and he stops his smiling

"I've barely seen anyone, ever. I'm a runner, it's kind of in the job description" he states and I give him a sad smile

"You're right, sorry" I say feeling stupid. Here's me being selfish when he hasn't even spent any time with Newt, Fry and Winston.

"But you know all about that right" He says and I smile and shrug

"My only friends in the last glade were the people I ran with so running didn't bother me" I admit and Minho nods

"I know how that is" he states and we share a smile

"No flower" He states sitting on his bed, starting to untie his shoes

I smile and shake my head

"No, it's dead" I state and he smirks

"Guess we should go jogging tomorrow, get you a new one" he says and I smile, biting my lip

"Sounds good" I state and he nods

"Good" we share a look and I look down feeling really happy

"It's a date" he says standing up, putting his shoes in his usual shoe spot by the wall and my jaw drops

He walks over to me and smiles and wiggles his eyebrows a little and I laugh

"See you tomorrow then" I say

"Yep, good night, loser" he says and I laugh

"Good night ass-hat" He laughs and we share a smile as he closes the door and I head to my room in my own little happy bubble. I actually wanted to scream. I couldn't wait to tell Harriet and Brenda. If Newt wasn't with Sonya I'd be running in there to tell he

 

 

"Maybe you should put your hair up" Harriet says as Me, Sonya, Brenda and Harriet are stood in the bedroom about an hour before the runners are due back, all of them skipping their day jobs to get me ready for this date. Although I'v told them a hundred times I always look like crap and there is nothing they can do with the nothing of supplies we currently have which would help our appearance. None of us cared enough to even ask for make up, even with guys being here. It's not like we would know what to do with it if it came up anyway.

"Yeah I could add a few plats leading into the bobble" She says touching my head and I sigh

"I put my hair up when I run, that's like the least sexiest thing I could do" I state and Brenda shrugs

"But you're jogging with him right, perfect excuse to put your hair up, besides you look cute with it up, if I was you I'd wear it up all the time" Sonya says and I roll my eyes and look at everyone.

"Fine" I sigh, giving in "But no plats!"

Sonya nods with a smile and they get the brush out, brushing my hair as Brenda watches with a smile on her face.

"You're probably the only girl in the glade that's actually going to have a date" Harriet admits

"It's Minho were on about here, he's sarcastic, this isn't technically a date, he just said it was" I state, mostly just to try and calm myself down

"Really?" Sonya says as if saying 'is that the best you can come up with'

I sigh and Harriet laughs

"He wouldn't say it if he didn't like you!" Harriet says

"Although I do remember when Thomas asked Minho if he was going to shower in the first month here, Minho said that was a date" Sonya says and Harriet sighs

"Not helping there Son!" She says and I smile

"Just saying, he's a funny guy! but yeah, he wouldn't say it to a girl I guess, if he didn't like you" She says and I smile

"Sure, thanks" I say and Brenda sighs

"Way to kill it guys!" Brenda says and I smile as Sonya and Harriet share a oops look.

 

"What's with the hair?" Hannah asks me as she gives me my food that evening.

"I'm going jogging in a bit, with Minho" I state and Hannah nods

"Cool, help yourself to water"

"Thanks" I smile and step aside, waiting for Harriet, Sonya, Brenda and Teresa to grab their bowls before I sat down. Teresa was always hanging with Harriet. Harriet didn't seem to have a problem with her, she actually liked her so me and Brenda just stayed quiet. She was aloud an opinion on the girl, even if it was wrong.

Minho joins us as soon as we sit down, Brenda moving aside for him so he could sit beside me before he even got over to us. I hadn't even noticed

"Where's Thomas?" Brenda asks

"Guys are showering" he shrugs tucking in to his food like he hadn't had any all day

"So why aren't you?" Harriet asks

"I'm only gonna work up a sweat later" he shrugs not looking at anyone as he drinks his soup from the bowl instead of using his spoon.

"Oh?" Brenda says, holding in her laughter as Harriet and Sonya sexually wiggle their eyebrows at me and I struggle to hold in my laughter

Minho looks up at us all, his left eyebrow raised as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand

"What?" he asks looking round at us all

"Nothing" Sonya says, nearly laughing causing Brenda to actually laugh out loud

"And I thought Thomas and Newt were whacked, you girls get first prize" he says going back to his food and we all share smiles and I shake my head, giving the girls warning looks not to turn Minho's words into an innuendo ever again, not that I didn't take it the wrong way too.

 

After dinner Minho told me he'll come and grab me in an hour. He was going to sit with Newt, rest his legs a little and I couldn't blame him for that. So I go into the medhut.

"Hey Lexi, I got this if you want to-" He looks up and stops talking

"If I what?" I ask confused, closing the door behind me

"Erm, you put your hair up?" he asks looking confused

"Oh yeah" I say putting my hand on the tight and high ponytail the girls did. It was a lot neater than any ponytails I had ever done and I really liked it, They had left a few strands and my fringe to frame my face and of course Sonya just had to add on a tiny plat from my parting to the bobble. I couldn't stop her.

"Erm, it looks good, like it suits you" Jackson says and I realise he's never seen me with my hair up before. It had always long fallen out by the time I was done running.

"Thank you" I say and he nods and goes back to cleaning the med bag.

"No problem, I got it here though, if you want to just chill with Harriet" he says and I shake my head, sitting on a stool

"I'm waiting for Minho" I say and he looks at me

"Oh, why?" he asks

"Were going jogging"

"You two jog, why, doesn't he run all day?" he asks and I smile

"Yeah but we enjoy walking around the Glade when it's dark and no ones around, it's peaceful. I told him I used to jog, in my old glade so we kinda do it now, not for long, it's just for fun" I admit with a shrug

"Oh"

We talk about Archery for a while along with Tyler and how adorable Newt and Sonya are and it helps pass the time and before I knew it Minho's standing at the doorway smiling at me.

"Hey Slint-head, ready to go?" he asks and I hop off the stool with a smile. Minho nods at Jackson as I walk over to him and we leave the room.

"Ready to lose?" I ask as we walk towards the door

"Lose? thought there was nothing competitive about a friendly jog?" Minho asks with amusement and I smile and he smirks

"Then you better prepare for a thrashing" he states and I laugh.

As soon as we leave the building Minho leaves me to close the door and I turn to see him sprinting away. I sprint after him as soon as the doors shut, yelling at him, calling him a cheater. He just laughs and I push my legs to their limits to catch up with him. I finally do and my lungs are burning with each breath I take. Minho starts slowing down when I catch up to him and it thankfully turns into a jog. I hit him playfully on the shoulder as I try and control my breathing. I physically couldn't call him a bitch with the state of myself at the moment. Minho just laughs and we slow down until we're walking.

"I kicked your ass!" he states

"Seriously, that was cheating!" I state as we get to the water. I land ungracefully on my ass and Minho sits besides me a few seconds later and we calm our breathing to normal just watching the water and the bugs that inhabit it.

"You heard about Sonya and Newt?" I ask and smile wide when Minho smiles and shakes his head

"Thomas hasn't stopped ripping into him" Minho says

"Wait you haven't? thought you'd be the first" I say

"I shook his hand, after making sure it was clean" I laugh at that looking at the water.

"Newt doesn't want anyone knowing" Minho tells me and I nod, smiling at Minho and how he's looking out for his friend.

"Sonya doesn't either" I say with a nod and he smiles at me and then his smiles gone as soon as it came as he's looking at me. I try and see what he's looking at and notice he's looking at my hair

"What?" I ask running my hand down my pony tail

"What?" he asks looking back to the water

"You not like it up?" I ask in a slightly teasing voice and he smirks

"I like it down" he admits and looks to me.

"Oh" I say and look at the floor. God damn those girls for making me have it up

"Don't get me wrong, looks nice up, I just prefer it down" he says and I force a smile at him at the way he said it, like he had hurt me.

"Good to know" I say and wink, doing a Minho and he laughs and nudges me and I smile. I wanted to take it down right then and there but I also didn't want to seem like I was trying to impress Minho. I was right, this was just like the other times we came out here to jog. There was nothing that shouts date about this. I sigh and lie down, deciding to look at the sky as Minho just sits there. I was such an idiot, thinking there was a chance Minho could possibly like me and that this was a real date. Who was I fooling. Great, now I was in a mood.

Minho gets up and I don't even bother looking up to see where he's going. Maybe he's going to leave me here to lie and feel sorry for myself. I hear him approaching about half a minute later and he comes and lies besides me. He's leaning on his side on his elbow, his other hand was twirling a small blue flower between his fingers and I find myself smiling.

"I believe I owe you this" he says looking up from the flower to my eyes and I smile. He motions for me to sit up so I do, slowly and Minho sits up too. He places his hands on my hips and pulls me so I'm in front of him on my knees. He gets up on to his knees too and he places the flower between his teeth and he brings his hand up to my hair. He puls out the bobble, seeming to struggle with the way it works for a while as I laugh at him. He finally gets the things off, handing me the bobble he gave evils to and then he pulled my hair, fanning it out and he smiles and tuckes some of my hair behind my ear and then places the flower there. I smile and take out a small hairclip Minho clearly hadn't seen which Harriet had put underneath the ponytail to stop that bump underneath and I use it to clip the flower into my hair so it wouldn't fall out. He smiles at me and I return it after putting my bobble on to my wrist so not to lose it

"Much better" he says and I roll my eyes. He lies on his back in his usual casual way and I smile and join him. His hand moves to just touch the back of mine and I smile and take his hand in my own, trying to keep my smile at bay.

OK, I was in a much better mood now.


	22. Chapter 22

That night back in my room Benda and Harriet were waiting patiently for my verdict on the night.

The night ended well but did I really want to tell them about the bad mood that settled over when Minho mentioned my hair, the face he pulled was definitely distaste, I didn't understand how something so simple as a hair change can ruin his mood, and I didn't want to upset Sonya as it was her idea.

"Well?" Brenda asks, her patience running thin.

"It went ok" I shrug and then go ahead and tell them everything, apart from the hair issue. They think it went great, if only!

 

"Lexi, are you ok?" Jackson asks me a couple hours later. I look up from the latest patient

"Huh, yeah why?"

"You just seem, off, thought you'd be in a good mood today that's all" he admits and he hands me a hot drink

"I'm fine. Why would I be in a good mood today?" I ask wondering if I was missing something

"Your date!" he says raising a brow and sitting beside me

"Oh, you heard about that?" I ask

"Tyler let it slip at breakfast"

"That little klunk head, who else knows?" I ask

"He only told me, as far as I know" he says and I frown

"Im gonna kill that kid!" I mutter and Jax laughs

"So, your date, it not go well?" he asks

"It wasn't a date Jax, just Minho being Minho, teasing me as usual" I mutter and now he's frowning

"He said it was a date to tease you?"

I look up to see Jackson looking angry

"No no! he didn't do anything wrong, it was me, I took it the wrong way, actually thought it was a date but it wasn't, ok! you know what he's like!" I reassure him and he bites his lip looking away angrily

"Yeah I do, makes me question why you hang out with him"

I roll my eyes and find Jackson staring at me

"Because he's my friend"

"A shit one Lex"

"Jax, can we not talk about Minho please?"

"Gladly, " he says and it goes quiet between us as we drink our teas. Another bad mood settling over me, because my day couldn't get worse.

It's only when we head out to dinner that we realise something is wrong. Everyone is standing around and talking amongst themselves and something just feels off

"Wonder what's going on?" Jax asks me as we head over to Harriet and Sonya stood together. As soon as they see me Sonya looks like she's about to cry and Harriet's just looking at me like she has a deep dark secret to tell me.

"What?" I ask and Harriet looks down while Sonya actually lets a tear slip down her pretty face. I look around again and in the distance, I see Newt, Brenda,Teresa, Winston and a few other people stood at the door.

Jackson says something before my mind is willing to put the pieces together for me.

"They not come back yet?" He asks

I glare at Harriet, willing her to let me know. She shakes her head and I'm sprinting towards the doors instantly.

I get there, finally, it felt like it took me forever. I pant, leaning on Brenda and when she looks at me there's tears in her eyes.

I grab Newt's arm and look at his watch.

"They have 6 minutes," Newt says on edge.

I release his arm and push past everyone to stand right in the middle at the front.

It was empty and silent, too silent.

"Are they all in there?" I ask as Newt steps past Frypan to stand at the front too.

"Yeah, Thomas, Minho, Andy, and Brett left first thing this morning," Teresa says and she sounds oddly unaffected by all of this, no emotion in her voice at all. I look back at her and she's just looking into the maze like she knew they was going to pop around the corner at any second.

 

It was silent between us all, even more people had slowly started walking over, Harriet and Sonya being two of them, Jackson right behind them.

I stayed at the front, my eyes searching the end corners, willing them to turn the corner. They had to, they have come this far, they'll make it, they always make it.

"They have a minute!" Brenda practically yells, her voice cracking, tears straining down her face. Even Teresa was starting to look down the maze entrance curiously.

"They'll make it," Newt says in barely a whisper besides me, almost like he was just reassuring himself but I could hear the disbelief in his own voice. We catch eyes and Newt narrows his eyes slightly for a second and I know there's a part of him that knows there's a chance they wouldn't return.

"No, they have to!" I say to him, everyone looking at me curiously to unspoken words by Newt.

Newt sighs and steps forward, standing right besides me, placing his hand on my shoulder.

"Thomas and Minho survived a night in the maze, there's a chance Lexi!" He says and a tear falls down my face as I look back at the pathway. Still no sight of them.

Suddenly the Glade booms, the echoes of the doors mechanics kicking in and the doors start shifting, a wind sweeping past all of us, causing us to squint our eyes as our hair whipped behind us for a second as the doors slowly make their way towards each other.

"No!" Brenda says and I go to step forward but Newt's hand on my shoulder pulls me back, giving me a stern look and I look back to the Maze.

"Come on, come on guys, please!" I say to myself, willing them on, they have to make it back!

Brenda falls to the floor, Molly and Harriet right there beside her. Newt,with his hand still on my shoulder he turns away with his eyes closed, like he couldn't bare watching the doors close without his friends coming through and I just stare in shock. They weren't going to make it.

The door closes with a sickening crunch of concrete and stone and everything's quiet apart from a few soft sobs around me. Newt looks back at the door as I start to shake my head.

"No, no they, they have to come back, they .. Newt!" I say looking to the blond besides me. He had pain in his large doe eyes but he refused to cry, keeping his emotions at bay as best he could but I could see through it.

"Newt?" I say again, as if he'd have all the answers and he looks down, removing his hand from my shoulder and he steps away, pushing his way through the crowd, needing to be alone.

"No!" I say looking back to the closed doors, my heart sinking, realisation hitting me that I wasn't going to see them again.

Suddenly someone's pulling me in to a hug and I realise it's Jackson and I cry into his chest as he holds me tight, not saying a word.

People start walking away silently. Brenda was still crying behind me as Harriet hugged her and Frypan and Winston was still standing there in almost a daze, water silently making a trail down both their faces as I silently sobbed into Jacksons arms.

Harriet tried pulling Brenda away from the doors when Fry and Winston left a while later, she let them take her away and finally Jackson pulled away from me to look over me.

"Come on, let's get you inside, how about a nice cup of tea" I let Jackson walk me to the medhut. I wasn't even focused on anything and we got there without me even remembering how. He sat me on a stool and a minute later he's handing me a hot cup of his herbal tea.

I mutter a thanks and he sits besides me. We don't speak a word and the next thing I know I'm sat up in bed hugging my knees tightly to my chest. Brenda lying besides me, still wide awake. Harriet wasn't here, I hadn't seen her since the doors.

"They will make it, right Lexi, they have done it before right, right?" Brenda turns her face, her eyes red and puffy, clear signs of hours of crying marked her raw cheeks. I pull in a deep breath. I didn't want to start crying again because I knew there was a chance I wouldn't be able to stop.

I couldn't answer my friend, false promises wasn't an option here and if I didn't believe it myself how was I going to convince Brenda.

Suddenly she sits up, wiping her wet face and looking at me.

"Were going in there, as soon as those doors open and were finding them, Thomas promised me he wasn't going anywhere so were finding them!" Brenda says and I find myself nodding.

 

Harriet returned a little while later, putting our lamp out and getting into bed. There were no words said as we all settled down. I stay near Brenda as I lie into a ball besides her. I couldn't sleep and hearing Brendas breathing finally soften and even out I knew she was finally asleep but I just couldn't. Each second was torture as I lay there thinking any second now a Griever could be on them, attacking them and ending their lives. Were they still alive, fighting or had they been over powered and lost their fight? 

As soon as the sun started making an appearance I creped out of the bed and slipped my shoes on, heading for the chest of papers. The guys running the section knew their way to the number at the end but I didn't and we'de need that map to find them, and our way back.

I pause when I get there as I see Newt sat on the chest, a few pieces of paper scattered around him and one in his hands. He looks up at me and we both just stare at each other, neither of us had gotten any sleep and we both knew that. We also both clearly had the same idea. I sit by his feet and look up at him.

"I" I clear my throat, hours of crying and not talking had dried my throat

"I'm coming with you!" I say and Newt doesn't even look at me

"I know," he says lightly and I look down at the grass and then over to the lake where just 2 nights ago me and Minho sat together. I close my eyes willing the tears away and look over the glade, thinking of all the fun we had together. My mind goes back to our game of tag, how Thomas tagged me and then shouted pile on. Thomas was always so cheerful, the life of the party, he couldn't go, it would be too quiet without him. Andy, he was a nice guy with a witty charm to him, he'd always make me smile. Brett, he may have been the latest to the runners but he was still a face I looked forward to seeing, he had a kind smile and he didn't talk a lot but he was good at running and the guys were grateful for him. And now they were all missing, all because of this stupid fucking place and the maze. Anger burned through me as I look at the walls, the doors still closed tight.

Just then Frypan and Winston catch my attention as they walked over to us.

"What are you guys doing?" Newt asks

"We're coming too," Winston says and Newt nods without a word

I go back inside to change, grab my bow and wake Brenda. The doors would be opening soon.

By the time the doors open were all standing there, all with bows, Winston with a spear and all of us a hand full of knives. I had the med bag with me and Newt had some fruit while Fry carried a few jars of water in the hopes we find them.

My heart stops for a second as we see the entry way empty and I hate how I made myself believe that when those doors opened they'd all be there.

Newt is the first to start running and we all follow behind.

Brenda starts shouting and neither of us even warn her about the Lighters, neither of us cared, we just wanted to find the guys.

5 corners in and now were all shouting names, Newt being the loudest when we hear a voice.

We all stop running, all crashing in to each other and looking around.

"What?" Winston asks, clearly not hearing anything and we all pierce our ears

"Newt?!"

"It's Brett!" Newt says looking right where the voice came from

Newts now sprinting, even with his limp he's gone and we all give chase.

When we round the corner my breath hitches and I want to just collapse, it was the runners, they were alive but then my mind sees the real picture.

Thomas was unconsious and Andy looked like he was in pain. Brett looked ready to pass out and Minho was slouched up a wall, his eyes closed but he had a small relieved smile on his face.

"Thomas!" Brenda yells and runs over to him as Newt's crouching near Thomas and Andy.

My med instincts kick in and I rush over to them

"What happened?" I ask Brett and I see Minho's head snap around to look at me

I meet his eyes and his smile was worth all the worrying, the tears and the sleepless night. His wide relieved smile lets up as he takes a deep breath and he's back to smiling at me and my heart beat goes crazy.

"Lexi!"

"What?" I shout back to Newt and look at Brett whos expecting an answer from me

"Thomas has been stung by a wasp, Andy a Griever!" Brett says and I nod, I rummage through my bag and grab two vials, grateful I had them on me

I insert the Griever serum into Andys side as he thrashed in pain, Fry and Newt having to hold him down and then I inserted the wasp serum into Thomas' neck where he had been stung

"Come on, let's get them out of here!" Newt says as he starts to pull Thomas up.

Newt and Brenda take an arm each and start dragging and pulling him down the path and Winston helps put Andy on Frypans back as he passes me the bag of water jugs. I take one out and pass it to Brett. he nods and I watch him wearily, he looked so tired and I dreaded to think of what he went through.

"Lexi" The voice is cracked and I look up to see Brett.

"Minho's hurt!" he says and I turn around to look at the keeper.

 

Minho's now standing though leaning a hand up the wall taking deep breathes, his harness in his other hand.

It's then I notice the large crimson stain on his shirt and I rush over to him as everyone leaves

I lift it up to see a long gash going from his side to his stomach

"Shit Minho, I need you to sit back down, I need to stop the bleeding, how long have you had that?" I ask

"Few hours" he mutters, his voice weak, he sounded exhausted

"What's going on?" Newt calls and I look behind me to see everyone had stopped

"Minho's injured, I need to stop the bleeding here, now! You guys carry on, get them out of here, I'll bring Minho to the med hut as soon as I stop the bleeding," I say and Newt nods and they continue on

Minho lies down on his back and his eyes close as I get the things I need from my bag

"Minho, stay awake ok, concentrate on my voice!" I say wiping a cloth over his cut to soak up some of the blood to see the damage

He hisses in pain but doesn't say anything

"What happened?" I ask as I eye the open skin. It looked deep and long, it also looked painful.

"Griever caught me" he grits out through clenched teeth and I nod, hiding my worry

I take a calm breath and get out a needle and thread. I needed to stitch him up

"Ok Minho, this is going to hurt like a bitch but I need you to stay still for me, can you do that?" I ask pushing his top up a bit more and he opens his eyes and looks at the needle in my hand and pants out a "shuck"

He nods a yes, closing his eyes again and I get to work as fast as I could.

He's still but the pain on his face was killing me. He'd gasp and swear and clench his fist but he pushed through it and finally he was all stitched up after me telling him a million times I'm sorry.

"You done?" he asks as I throw the needle on the floor and grab some gauze to wrap around him

"Yeah" I state with a deep breath, the hard part was done.

"I need you to stand up and for your stitches and your own sake, I need you to do it carefully, without pressure to your stomach," I say as I kneel besides his head ready to help him.

His face is a little paler and he's sweating profoundly.

"Minho!" I shout and his eyes snap open

"Did you hear me?" I ask alarmed

"Get up, carefully, yeah"

I sigh in relief and help to carefully and slowly bring him to his feet.

"Can you lift your arms?" I ask and he eyes me wearily, the sleep he's been deprived of showing clearly in his eyes.

He lifts his arms slowly, gritted teeth and his eyes shut tightly and I carefully pull his t-shirt over his head and tip toe to pull it off his arms, he lowers them a little to help me and then he's smiling as I lob his t-shirt on top of the med bag.

"What?" I ask him curiously

"I knew you preferred me with my shirt off," he says weakly and I find myself laughing"You got me," I say back wanting to see him smile again, it helped easy my worrying.

I unwrap some of the gauze and start wrapping it around him, Minho keeping his arms out of the way by leaning them on my shoulders.

"Shit, Lexi," Minho says in a whisper and I can hear the panic in his voice

"What?" I whisper back. I don't even know why I'm whispering but I do

"Lighter" My eyes shoot behind me to see it slowly ambling towards us

"Of all times," I say making Minho hold on to the gauze and I grab my bow

"Lexi" Minho says, his voice stronger, demanding. I glance his way to see he looks worried

"It's just one, step back" I say and grab an arrow from my holster and line up my first shot. I release the arrow instantly and the thing screeches from the first bulb breaking. I have another arrow in place before it even starts towards me again. I release instantly, not wanting to waste time, I couldn't risk it reaching me as it wasn't that far away, I needed to be quick.

Another arrow hits a third bulb as it starts walking towards me, almost with anger from the way it walked.

I take a step back, grabbing the arrows, flinging them on my back and yell for Minho to step back as he hadn't moved. He finally starts walking back, his hand on the wall for help and I concentrate on the Lighter, still heading towards us. I release another arrow and it misses the light, embedding in it's dark skin just beside it.

"Shit" I mutter and grab another arrow, thankfully that one hits but it's still getting closer. I take a few steps back and send another arrow flying. the thing falls over as it's light in it's knee bursts and I take a deep breathe to calm my nerves, at least it would slow it down. I work fast, hitting another 2 arrows in to it before it clambered back up lazily, whining as it does. I pull my last arrow back and aim for the last bulb and release, the creature only 4 foot away and it pops and fizzes and the thing falls flat on it's none existent face, breaking all my arrows that were sticking out of it's disgusting body causing me to have to step back.

I take a deep breath and lower my bow and step forward. I kick it, making sure it's dead and sigh another relieved breath and turn to smile at Minho but he's leaning, his back against the wall and his eyes closed

I run up to him, throwing my bow and wipe the sweat from his cheeks

"Minho!"

He takes a deep and shaky breath and nods

"I'm ok"

"Let's get you wrapped up and in bed" I state and I know something is wrong when there's no sassy come back so I hurry, not caring about it being fancy and grab my bag after stuffing his bloody and ripped shirt inside, I grab my bow and arrows and make Minho put his arm around me and we start walking down the hallway, when we reach the end Winston and Frypan appear and I sigh in relief

"Newt sent us in to see what's taking you so- oh" Fry says eyeing the dead lighter

"Take him, he's heavy" I say knowing I couldn't hold him for much longer, not with me also carrying the water, med bag and my weapon and arrows.

They both put an arm over their shoulders and start dragging him away and I look back at the hallway.

The dead Lighter, drops of blood on the floor, the empty vials I had to use on Thomas and Andy. I look away and follow behind the guys. I didn't want to have to step foot in that pathway again.

 

The medhut was filled with noise and bodies moving around when I entered after Fry, Winston and Minho.

The sting victims were now lying on their own sleeping bags in the Homestead to allow the runners the beds and inside the med room. Andy was now sleeping though he was still thrashing on occasion and crying out in pain even in his sleep. It had been a very long time since I've seen a Griever sting victim.

I look over at Thomas, Brenda and Teresa at his side. He looked peaceful and healthy, like he hadn't even spent a night in the maze.

Winston and Frypan lie Minho down on to the other spare bed. He had fallen asleep as soon as he passed the threshold to the Glade.

Jackson comes over as I sit on the stool besides Minho's bed and Winston and Fry go over to Newt who's stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed, looking over at Minho with concernt on his pale tired face.

"What happened to Minho?" Jackson asks me

"Griever struck him, it's deep Jax, I stitched him up but, he's lost so much blood", I say, the tears I have wanted to shed since seeing him again were finally pouring out and he kneels besides me

"You've done everything you can, he's strong, he's gonna be ok!" I look at Jackson and he's smiling reassuringly, I return it weakly and he stands up

"I'll go and make him some tea with plenty of antibiotics and find him something for the pain for when he wakes up"

"Thank you" I say and he nods and leaves the room after telling Newt he's going to collect some herbs 

I give Minho one more look before I go over to Newt. Brett's sitting beside him, head in his hands and Newt looks at me

"I told you", he says lightly and I find myself laughing lightly and he smiles

"Thank you" I say to Newt and he nods then looks over to Minho

"He's going to be ok, right?" he asks and I look over to him too

"I hope so, I don't know how much blood he's lost, he looks weak and he needed stitches, honestly the rest is up to him" I say, another tear falling and Newt surprises me by pulling me in for a hug and I wasn't sure if it was for me or him, I think we both needed the hug. The door opens, catching our attention. He releases me and Sonya and Harriet come walking over

"Oh my god, are they ok, what happened?" Harriet asks as Sonya walks over to me and Newt, grabbing Newts hand to give it a loving squeeze.

"Thomas got stung at the number, they took it in turns running with him, carrying him but they bumped into too many Lighters, they took it in turns to distract them so Thomas could get past but, not all of them were that stupid, they were 10 minutes in when the doors closed" Newt says so Brett doesn't have to explain it all again

"What happened to Andy?" Harriet asks looking worried, in fact, she hadn't taken her eyes off of him since she walked in

"Stung by a Griever protecting Minho" My head snaps to Andy then. He did it protecting Minho?

"It was all a blur and happened so fast" Brett says, looking up to look at the other runners "We hid behind the vines most of the night, a Griever found us eventually though and Minho distracted the Griever to protect Thomas, that's how Minho got hurt before he outran it and hid, another Griever came, Andy leading that one away, Minho bumped in to Andy on his way back, Minho slower from his injuries, Andy tried hitting the thing away as it went for Minho so it stung him and then just left them there. Minho and Andy dragged each other back to me and Thomas and we all just hid, waiting out the rest of the night, knowing the doors were due to open soon yet we were all too weak to move" By the looks of things Winston and Frypan heard the story too. Brett sighs and rubs his face, shaking his head.

"I didn't think we'de make it" he mutters and Newt puts a hand on his shoulder as I look at the survivors.

How was any of them still alive after all of that? I look to Minho in awe. I'd have died 10 times over if I was trapped in there, they was smart for hiding. Andy was an everyday hero. Protecting Thomas and Brett from the Griever and then Minho from an attack. We were so lucky to have Andy with us.

 

I open my eyes to realise I had fallen asleep on my arms on Minho's bed, my ass on the stool and back bent painfully. I sit up and hiss at the pain in my back as I straighten out and look at Minho. The room was dark and lit up by torches and lamps making me know it was late. The runner was asleep and I look over to see Jackson mixing herbs with some hot water.

"He woke up yet?" I ask and Jackson jumps, the room being silent.

"Sorry" I say, rubbing sleep from my eyes

"I woke him up earlier to make him have a drink of the herbs and a sandwich, Minho didn't want to wake you" I look back at the man and feel relieved to know he's eaten and had some antibiotics. His wound didn't look infected but it was better safe than sorry in this place.

"Why don't you go to bed" Jackson offers 

I ignore him and stand up, stretching my legs and walk over to Andy

"How is Andy?" I ask looking over at him. His face was pulled up in pain and he was restless but he wasn't yelling like when we found him

"He seems better, Newt thinks he might wake up in a few days, I think we got the serum to him in time" I nod and then look over to Thomas.

Teresa was asleep at his side and anger fills me for some reason. I didn't like her being next to him.

"And Thomas?" I ask and Jackson smiles, placing the jar with it's lid on, putting it besides Minho's bed.

"He's fine, he's gonna wake up confused though", He says walking over to me

"I know Thomas, he's going to wake up blaming himself for all of this" I state sadly, just imagining what his mental states going to be like.

"Then we need to remind him it's not his fault, there going to live, they'll be fine"

I look up at Jackson and he smiles at me before I glance at Minho

"Will Minho be ok?" I ask still worried for him

"He seemed drowsy when he woke up but like you said, he's lost a lot of blood, He's passed the worst and he woke up, he will live Lex, he was just concerned about you, said he never even thanked you for saving his life, he just needs rest and for his wounds to heal"

"He's strong, like I said, he won't go anywhere until he's thanked you" I chuckle lightly and smile at Jackson, He smiles at me and goes back to his herbs

I sit besides Minho and look over his face. He still looked pale and I realise there's a clean bandage over the gauze, Jackson must have done it while I was asleep and it rested my mind a little to see no blood had seeped through onto it. I hated myself for not sleeping all night, If I wasn't sleep deprived I would have been awake to speak to him.

The bandage was bright in contrast to his tanned skin in the darkly lit room. I hated it, a bandage wrapped around his stomach as he lay there, it was all wrong and so out of place. I look down at his hand and place mine over his. It was warm which was a relief and I smile.

I wasn't going to sleep until I had seen Minho awake and smiling.

Jackson says good night an hour later, asking me to stay the night incase they wake up, saying if any of them did then to make them drink the special tea he's made them. He puts a spare quilt over me before he leaves the room and I go back to watching the guys.

 

Teresa wakes up around 4 in the morning and we lock eyes when she looks around the room.

She looks back away from me to Thomas again and stretches her arms out yawning and stands up.

"How long I been out?" She asks walking over to me

"No idea, you were asleep when I woke up last night" I state looking back to Minho

"You been awake all night?" She asks and I nod

"You should get some sleep, you're meant to be looking after these guys, you can't help them if you're tired", She says harshly, no ounce of sympathy in her stern voice.

Anger rushes through my veins and I find myself standing and glaring into her eyes. How dare she speak to me like that. 

"I've been here all day!" I say letting the anger seep through

"Yeah, sleeping! Look I'm just saying, you should sleep, Jackson did enough today, he doesn't need you sleeping on the job again tomorrow"

More anger hits me and I want to punch her, I really really want to punch her but I refrain as my fists clench, taking all the willpower I possessed not to swing them.

"I was awake all night worrying sick about my best friends while they were trapped in the maze, hell everyone was! I bet you slept soundly though right?, not even worrying, I saw your face while we were all waiting at the wall, you didn't even look worried!" I accuse and anger clouds her eyes and we ignore the noise beside us

"Of course, I worried, I know Thomas was trapped out there but there's nothing we could do, the best thing to do is to get some sleep so we have the energy to help them the next day!" She says, her eyes boring into mine as we face each other though her voice was calm which just annoyed me even more.

"What, you think it's easy to just sleep knowing your friends are out there, it's not, I was worried, I couldn't sleep knowing they were in danger" I state and she snorts

"You're just selfish Lexi, all you really care about is Minho, you left Jackson to everything while you just stayed at Minho's side"

"You know what Fuck you Teresa, we all know all you care about is Thomas, The difference is I care about them all, I went into that maze the next day to go and get them, I fought a fucking Lighter to get Minho back here safe, so say all you want I don't regret anything and I know I'm not selfish! and the reason I'm awake is because Jackson wants someone to stay here to watch them around the clock in case one of them wakes up and we're not here to help them" Her face screws up in anger but she doesn't say anything and I find some satisfaction in the fact that she doesn't have a come back.

Teresa looks to Minho then to me and shakes her head and walks out of the room

"Bitch" I mutter angrily

"Told you she was a bitch", Minho's weak voice says and I turn to face him. He was sat up in bed and I look at him surprised for a second

"How long you been awake?" I ask sitting on the stool beside him and he smiles

"Since around the part you started yelling at Teresa", he says and I huff out a small laugh

"I'm sorry for waking you, how are you feeling?" I ask

"Are you kidding me, I'm glad I woke up to witness that" I smile and shake my head

"Really, though, Minho, how are you feeling?" I ask and reach up to check his temperature. His head was hot and I frown, he was burning up

"I'm tired, need a piss, my stomach is hurting like a bitch but apart from that, I'm great," he says, sarcasm lacing his last words. I smile and hand him the drink Jackson had ready made for him

"This more of that herbal tea klunk?" he asks pulling a face

"It'll do you good Minho" I state and he watches it with disgust as I take the lid off for him and takes a few small sips

"Wanna help me up?" he asks passing me the jar back. I nod, putting the lid on and I stand up as Minho moves his blanket and slowly puts his feet over the bed.

I go to grab his running shoes

"I ain't putting them back on," he says causing me to laugh so I put his arm over my shoulder, putting mine around his back and help lift him up. He grits his teeth together but he doesn't make a sound except for a deep breath when he's standing fully and we walk through the medhut and over to the large outside bathroom.

"Are you sure you're gonna be ok?" I ask not wanting to leave him to walk inside alone

"I'll be fine, ya pervert" he says and I laugh and he heads inside and I lean up the building to wait for him.

After a minute with no return I pop my head into the door and yell his name and hear running water. I step inside curiously, closing the door behind me.

I pass the line of mens toilets with no sign of Minho and step into the next room to see the end shower running, steam coming from the water and I see Minho standing under the spray of hot water, his head back, the water hitting his face. There were metal slate type walls in between every shower head for a small ounce of privacy meaning I could only see the top half. I step forwards and 2 showers away I open my mouth

"What the hell are you doing?" I ask and Minho wipes his face, removing it from the water and he looks at me

"Jackson said if I can to wash my wound today so I thought I'd do it now while I could be bothered to", he says and I smile .

"Don't take the gauge off, just the bandage, you could rip out the stitches doing that so, just let it soak" I say and he nods

"Will do doc he says and he places his head back under the water, looking down so the water hits the back of his head as he leans up the wall and I try not to blush at the realisation that Minhos showering only a few feet away from me. I suddenly turn around realising I shouldn't be watching him and I hear him laugh

"I'm not naked, unless you ask nicely", he says and I smile

"Injured and still cocky", I say 

"I can get away with it, I'm an injured puppy" he states and I laugh

"You gonna be ok while I get you a change of clothes and a towel?" I ask

I get no answer so I turn around worried but he's just scrubbing his face

"Min?" I ask

"yeah, I'll be fine," he says so I nod and leave him to his hot shower.

 

I head to the homestead and in to Minho's room to collect some of his clothes, including fresh boxers. those running undies have to be uncomfortable. I smirk to myself and leave the room. I pop my head in to the medhut quickly. Andy was still thrashing a little and sweating but he wasn't yelling in pain again and Thomas was as expected, sleeping soundlessly although inside that head of his a nightmare was going on.

 

Back in the showers the rooms gone slightly steamy. I notice the bandage, wet and on the floor behind him for me to see. I grab a towel from the rack and head in to the shower next to him to put the towel on the divider for him along with his clothes. Minho's teeth are gritted as he leans back, letting the water soak his wound. His trousers completely drenched.

"Don't over do it Min" I say and he looks at me, pain in his eyes yet he's still smiling

"You're cute when you're worried about me"

I scoff and he closes his eyes again

"Hurry up, I'll be outside, call me if you need anything" I say and he nods and I sit against the wall outside and look over the Glade

 Outside waiting for Minho my stomach rumbles and hunger suddenly hits me and I realise I've missed breakfast lunch and dinner. Food's going to have to wait though I guess.

After another few minutes I get worried so yell inside for Minho to hurry it up and I hear the slightest chuckle with the water off so I knew he wouldn't be long.

Once he was out we walk back to the med room and I tell him not to get back into bed just yet and I search the room for some more bandages.

I wrap his stomach and side in silence and when done I order him back in bed and I sit besides him and tell him to get some sleep.

"I've been asleep all day" Minho mutters and I smile down at him

"The more you rest the faster that heals" I say nodding to his injury

"I've slept enough, how's Brett?" Minho asks and I sigh

"I don't know, only seen him this morning, I have no idea how he is emotionally but I'm guessing he's asleep right now" I say and Minho nods and looks at the bed besides him to Andy.

"That shuck face saved my damn life" he says quietly and I smile at Andy's sleeping form

"That could have been me" He says looking back up to me

"But it's not!"

He narrows his eyes and then hisses in pain, leaning his head back

"He's an idiot" Minho says taking me by surprise and I frown

"Why?" I ask

"Because he wouldn't be going through that if he just let the thing get me"

"You can't change what's already happened Min and you should be kissing his ass, not calling him an idiot!"

Minho's eyes turn sad and I'm taken back. There was something in his eyes, something he's been carrying with him, something that hurts inside.

"What is it?" I ask and he sighs, leaning in to the pillows

"You'd be working with a guy called Jeff if he, if he hadn't of died getting out here" He says and I grab his hand and give it a squeeze

"Was he a med jack?" I ask and he smiles

"Oh yeah, he had to keep Cliff from amputating fingers and legs" I give him a worried look but Minho laughs lightly

"Clint thought he was funny, Jeff saved my life and died because of it" he says, his eyes narrowed and looking past me

"That guy died to get everyone out, see I knew the code and , and if, if I didn't he'd probably still be here"

I look down saddened for a minute and it's silent for a while. I didn't know what to say. Minho felt guilty, that was obvious. All I could think of is

"It's not your fault"

Minho looks up at me

"Jeff and Andy, they chose to help you, they're your friends, they care, they know you have what it takes to lead us all through that maze, to lead us to safety. Andy is still alive, that counts for something so you make sure you thank that shank for what he did, he isn't going to regret it Minho, not one bit"

Minho lets out a breath and closes his eyes, almost like he no longer wants to talk about it and I sigh quietly.

"The creators did this Minho, not you, not Thomas, them! were getting out of here and were never coming back, good that?"

Minho opens his eyes and there's a faint smile

"Good that" We smile at each other and he grips my hand back.

"Oh and by the way shank, you ever worry me like that again and I'll kill you myself!" I state sternly and he smiles at me before closing his eyes

"I'd like to see you try" I laugh quietly and keep a hold of his hand, even long after he had fallen to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	23. Chapter 23

Minho hated it, hated every damn second of it and he voiced it, a lot.  
He was hard work, bed ridden for two weeks through no choice of his own.  
The runners would always come in after their runs to check on him and try and keep his spirits high.  
He hated not being able to do anything, just sitting there, at least he had Thomas for the first day.  
I wanted to keep Thomas in the hospital although physically he was fine, mentally he was feeling guilt for what had happened.  
I spent the day talking sense into him. He didn't have to voice his thoughts for me and Minho to know how he felt. He couldn't stop looking at poor Andy.  
His painful moans causing us all to keep a watchful eye on him.  
Brenda also helped with Thomas, we all told him it could have been any one of the runners that got stung but he still couldn't look at Andy and Minho without guilt.  
Andy spent 3 days in here. He woke up the second day with memories of being tested by WICKED. That only made Thomas feel more guilt though he had never seen Andy before he came up that lift nearly half a year ago.

Minho was sulking and winging even more when Andy was released. Though Andy was now mentally scared he was ok. Newt and Brett checking on him over the course of the week just to make sure.

  
Harriet, Sonya, Newt and Brett ran the 3 days when Thomas and Andy couldn't.  
Me and Minho hated that, I wanting to go with them in case there was another sting and they struggled but Harriet told me they'd be fine and that I need to watch Minho so I did, not wanting to go against Harriet. She wouldn't let me even if I tried to anyway.

Tyler hung out with me a lot that week too, Minho liked his company even if he didn't admit it to me as much as I tried to pry it from him.  
Tyler would keep Minho company while I did the daily archery lessons. I knew Minho had asked him because he doesn't like Jacksons company too much, not that I knew why.  
I thought the first week was bad but come the second he would leave the room when I would leave for my archery class, Tyler couldn't really stop him and Jackson didn't even try. He had been doing it 3 days when I finally found out and caught him sat on the fallen over tree near the unlit fire when me and Brenda were walking towards the home stead after a successful hour of archery.  
He was sat with Tyler, their backs to us

"I'll see you later," I say to Brenda letting her know I was heading towards them and she nods and carries on towards the building as I head to the guys  
"What the hell are you doing?" I ask and Tyler turns his head to give me an expression of being caught out and I would have laughed if I wasn't worried for Minho. He didn't even look at me.  
"Get your ass inside!" I say stepping over the tree to stand in front of the guys.  
"He just wanted some fresh air, Jackson didn't mind," Tyler says and I look to Minho  
"Well unlike Jackson I care about my patients," I say and Minho looks at me  
Minho stands up not saying a word though he looked annoyed  
"You ok?" I ask  
"Fine" he mutters and I sigh as I watch him walk. His stomach had healed and was now just scabbed over but I still wanted him to take it easy until it was fully healed and scared over.  
"I really couldn't stop him, he's determined," Tyler says and I smile at him  
"Tell me about it!" I mutter for Minho to hear

Inside Minho sits on his bed and I walk over to Jax  
"Found Minho outside, why'd you let him go?" I ask quietly as Minho looks at us both  
"He's been going out a few days now, fresh air will do him good" he says with a shrug  
"What? a few days? Jax it's Minho were on about here, I'm surprised he wasn't running the Glade or climbing the shucking walls" I state and he scoffs  
"If he hurts himself then it's his own fault"  
"What is your problem with him?" I ask  
"You guys gotta talk about me like I'm not even in the shucking room?" Minho enquiries from his bed and I sigh  
"That's my problem, it's Minho, he's a jerk most the time, you shouldn't care if he hurts himself, it's only fresh air Lex, it isn't going to hurt him!"  
"He is not a jerk!" I say sternly still low enough for Minho not to hear and Jax rolls his eyes  
"Half the time you're arguing with each other because he's telling you-you can't do stuff"  
"Because he's a keeper, he is aloud to tell people what they can and can't do!" I say sternly not liking this side to Jackson, I'd never seen him like this before  
"Look, whatever, he's fine right so no problem!"  
"No problem, he isn't fully healed yet, are you forgetting I also work here Jackson, tell me about these things" I say not caring if anyone heard now  
"I knew I wouldn't be able to stop him so what's the point, Lexi, he's fine"  
I sigh and walk back over to Minho to see him smiling  
"Doc giving you some trouble there, want me to sort him out?" Minho asks  
"Shut up Minho," I say and he pulls an amused face and Tyler looks uncomfortable and I sit down and cross my arms. Maybe I did over react but still, what was wrong with Minho and Jackson, couldn't they just get along? Jackson should care for his patient, not let him wonder off while I'm not there.

Tyler left a while later and Jackson went for a shower leaving just me and Minho and Michelle, the sting victim of today alone.  
"Why can't you and Jackson just get on?" I ask and Minho looks at me confused  
"He's the one with the problem!"  
"Really?" I ask incredulously and he sighs  
"Believe what you want" he shrugs clearly not caring much  
"God I hate it in here, when can I start running again?" he asks  
"I can't believe you actually want to go back in there!" I say  
"Better than being stuck here with him" I sigh but ignore that comment  
"Not until you're fully healed," I say and he slumps in the bed, playing with his thumbs.

I let Minho leave the hut for dinner, Minho talking me into it more than anything but I felt bad after earlier and the exercise will be good for him, even if it is just walking from the medhut to the food hut. The runners were happy to see Minho out eating dinner and they talked happily about the number now being on 60. We would be out of here within 3 months. As much as it was good news it was also worrying. I was dreading the day we all made a run for it.

 The next morning when I enter the med room I find two things I didn't like. The first being Teresa, the second was Minho wasn't in his bed.

"What is she doing here and where is Minho?" I ask and Teresa smiles, she wasn't stupid, she knew I had a problem with her.

"She doesn't have a job, remember and he's gone back to his own room," he says and I sigh

"You don't even have one skill?" I question her teasingly

"I think I do, just none of them are for jobs around here," she says folding her arms looking calm

"Yeah, sure" I mutter as I start to make myself a drink

"I broke up Jacks and Minho earlier, Minho was about to cause them both some damage," Teresa says with venom in her voice as she spoke about the keeper.

I face her, anger in my eyes

"What?" I question Jackson, not wanting to talk to her anymore

"I was sick of his lip, told him he could sleep in his own bed and he left"

"Why can't you two just get on!" I say angrily

"Hey, he's the one with the attitude problem," Jackson says

"Heard that before" I mutter and I take a seat to find Teresa smiling. What the hell was she so happy about.

 

I hated it in there with Teresa, all they did was talk, leaving me out. It was another 10 minutes until dinner so I left early not wanting to hear more about how Teresa has been hanging around with Amy more and that she's a nice person. So first she befriends my best friends Harriet and Jackson, then Amy, the girl who's name made anger crawl up my spine.

 

I decide to head for Minho's room but of course, it was empty so I make my way outside knowing he wouldn't be stuck inside.

I find Tyler and Chris sat under a tree.

"Hey Lexi" Tyler says, a huge smile on his happy go lucky face

"Hey Ty, you seen Minho?" I ask

"How did I know you'd be asking for him" he teases and I smile

"You seen him or what?" I ask with a laugh

"Yeah, he's erm ..."

"At the lake with the small girl" Chris says and Tyler nudges him

"What?" I ask

"He's at the lake" Tyler says with a huff then giving his friend evils

I eye them both warily and then leave to head for the lake.

 

With the expanse of the Glade being flat I could see the lake from where I was and I realised the closer I got that he was sat with a girl but I couldn't make out who until I was a good 20 feet away. It was Amy. I stop dead in my tracks and just watch in shock. He was sat with Amy? But he was at the lake, that's our spot, isn't it? or am I just being too attached? I frown and just watch them wondering when they became friends. They're just talking. Amy has her long hair up in a bun and now she's laughing, Minho joining in and I can hear it from where I'm stood. My frown drops and jealousy rips through me. Minho stops laughing, his chest still shaking and Amy nudges him playfully, like what we do and anger now boils inside of me and suddenly Minho's hand goes to Amy's hair, he pulls something from it and hands it to her and she smiles with a blush, Minho nudges her back smiling and then his smile drops when his eyes catch mine and I storm away, heading back to the medical room to Teresa and Jackson.

 

"Lex, you ok?"

That was the thing with Jackson, he always knows when something is up, all it takes is one look.

 

I ignore him though, my mind too riled up to form conversation, I was also too angry and scared I was going to hurt Jackson if I opened my mouth.

"Lex?" he asks again, heading towards me and I see Teresa fold her arms from the corner of my eyes.

"Hey" Jax reaches out for me and puts his hand on my arm and I look at him and I'm instantly pulled into a hug as he can see the water in my eyes. I was fighting with myself not to let a tear slip. I was being absolutely ridiculous, nearly crying over a guy all because he was flirting with another girl, the girl I hated, the girl he shared a name with when I should be worrying about the important stuff like his health.

 

I grip Jackson hard, willing myself not to cry. I take a deep breath and close my eyes to help my battle and I hear Teresa huff

"Guess I'll leave you both to it, make sure she's ok" Teresa says to Jackson and if it wasn't for my inside battle I'd have glared at her, like she cares about me.

I hear the door shut and Jackson starts stroking my hair.

"Lexi what happened?" he asks lightly and I pull back to look up to him, his arms still around me.

I laugh because this was stupid and I shake my head

"Nothing!" I state and he frowns unconvinced and it's then I hear Teresa's laughter outside and suddenly the door opens and it's Minho. He looked like he had been running but his breath wasn't that heavy and I catch a glimpse of Teresa walking away across the Glade.

Minho's eyes narrow at me and Jackson as I'm in his arms and panic strikes through me. What if Jackson accuses Minho of making me upset, although it was true I couldn't have Minho know that.

"What do you want?" Jacksons words towards the runner were laced with anger

"Come to see Lexi" Minho says annoyed

"She doesn't want to see you" Jackson says, his hug still tight and I bury my head and take a breath in his chest.

"It's fine Jackson" I say and he loosens his grip and looks down at me

"It's him isn't it, who's upset you?" Jax asks and I look up to him and smile

"Give us 5 minutes, please?" I ask and he looks annoyed but he walks out of the room, slamming the door without arguing.

 

There's an awkward silence between us so I huff

"What do you want Minho?" I ask

"You and Jackson looked ... " Minho steps closer and shrugs not forming a word to end that sentence

"So did you and Amy" I say with anger leaking through and Minho's eyes narrow and his mouth opens

"We were just talking" he says

"And we were just hugging" I admit and we both just stare at each other.

"Your boyfriend seems annoyed I'm here, should I be worried?" He asks

"Minho!" I warm with a huff

"What?" he asks annoyed

"Just ... grow up!" I say and he laughs and shakes his head

"Me grow up, really Lexi? Jesus, why do I bother trying to talk to you" he mutters and then he's gone.

 

I sit on the stool and try to calm my beating heart and this time I don't even fight the tears back that fall. And that's how Jax found me, a crying mess on the med stool. He wrapps his arms around me like the time I was crying in his arms when the runners hadn't made it though the door and it's then I realise just how much Jackson is actually here for me.

"Why do you like him Lexi?"

It had been a good 20 minutes, my tears were now dry on my cheeks and I was no longer sniffling so his voice takes me by surprise, we pull away and he drags a stool to now sit opposite me, his eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"He's my friend" I say quietly, wiping at my uncomfortable cheeks

"No I mean, you want to be with him, why?"

I sigh. Jackson was smart, of course he knows I have taken a liking to the keeper.

"He's funny, makes me smile, we've always just got on" I say quietly, still scared I could start crying again any minute

"Lex, he's a bully. he lead you on about a date and I'm sick of him upsetting you, why can't you see he's no good for you?"

I look down, I didn't want to believe it, Minho was my friend

"What did he do this time?" He asks when I give no answer and I look back up at him

"Nothing" I mutter and he sighs

"Come on Lex, what was it?"

"He was flirting with Amy, he was sat with her in our spot at the lake, stupid I know" I mutter looking away angry at myself for being so childish, getting upset over jealousy, jealousy of Amy.

"Stupid that you like him, yes! stupid you have a heart and want to be treated with respect from the runner, no, he's a dickhead Lexi, you can do better" I shrug and look back to the floor

"I honestly thought he liked me, he held my hand, gave me flowers, it was nice. When I thought I had lost him forever I realised how much he means to me and now, now he's sat with some girl he barely knows while I'm sat here miserable, I stitched him up, I sat with him all night, I spent the time to get to know him and what the fuck has she done? nothing!" I say angrily and Jax gives me a small smile before he pulls me on to his lap for another tight hug and I cling to his shoulders and close my eyes as I rest my face between his neck and shoulder. He smelled different to Minho but it was a nice smell, it smelled like herbs and antiseptic wipes and the boys shampoo causing me to smile.

The door opens and I pull away from Jax to see Tyler at the door

"Oh sorry, erm, you're missing last meal" he says and he's gone again

"Come on, let's eat" he says rubbing my shoulder as I climb off of his lap and I nod and we head outside together.

 

 


	24. Chapter 24

We sit with Tyler, Chris, Aris, and a few others. Sonya, Newt and the others all sitting with Minho and Teresa, people I didn't want to be near. Harriet and Son gave me questioning looks, I shake my head and get back to eating, listening to Tyler trying to ask as slyly as possible if me and Jackson were now a thing, Aris caught on though, as did Megan and questions soon ensued. Jackson had to tell people we were just friends and that I was upset about a nightmare which thankfully stopped the questions. I noticed Teresa kept looking over at us but I tried my best to ignore her, and also the fact that Minho and Amy were sat only 2 spaces away from each other.

I eat quickly, not wanting to be out there, Tyler finishing with me as he eats like there is no tomorrow and we both head to the food stand to put our bowl back when Teresa catches up with us.

"So Tyler, what were you saying about Lexi and Jax?" She pries though her eyes are on me

"Go away Teresa!" I say and Tyler looks at me shocked at how rude I'm being to her

"Erm, nothing" he says after the silence drags on too long

"Were they cuddling again?" She asks with a teasing smile and Tyler looks from her to me, not wanting to say anything and I'm grateful for it. Tyler knew not to say anything, sure he wasn't well educated but he was close enough to me to know when something was wrong and not to say anything.

I stop walking as we are half way towards the stand and face her, bowels all but forgotten.

"Really Teresa, what is your problem?" I ask and she fawns confused

"Problem?" She asks and I sigh

"Oh don't act stupid, you know exactly what I'm on about, you're always sticking your nose in, what the hell do you want?" I ask

"Nothing, I just want to see you all happy" She says with a menacing smile and I clench my fist. She spots it and her smile grows

"What are you going to do, hit me? with everyone watching?" She asks and I look over to everyone. There was only Jackson, Harriet, Aris and Minho watching.

"Don't tempt me" I say and she laughs

"Oh please, you wouldn't hit me, all mouth, bet you've never thrown a punch in your life"

"I've thrown plenty" I warn and she rolls her eyes

"Whatever, just because Minho likes Amy doesn't mean you can just jump to the next man, name or not"

"What?" I ask furiously as I see Tyler looking uncomfortable, I felt sorry for him.

"We all know about Minho and Amy by the lake earlier, seems he's lost interest in someone as plain and pathetic as yo-

My fist connects with her cheek and she stumbles back. Tyler drops the bowls to catch her, keeping her upright. Terresa holds her cheek, looking stunned as I see a few people head towards us. Suddenly Teresa's diving on me, her fingers going to my neck, squeezing the life out of me. I choke, my eyes watering as I pull at her fingers, shouting ringing in my ears as her face hovers above mine, her glare deadly. It didn't scare me, though, I had had enough fights with Harriet to know how to get her off of me and eating the dirt.

I knee her in the stomach and her fingers loosen enough for me to push her off and I clamber on top of her, punching her hard. I'm about to throw another punch at her face when someone catches my arm. I turn to see Harriet and suddenly Jackson is pulling me off of her but I keep my eyes on Harriet, she wasn't happy.

 

Standing up, I realise everyone is surrounding us and Aris pulls Teresa up.

"Care to explain yourselves?" Harriet asks as Newt pushes everyone aside to observe the scene.

I glare at Teresa

"She deserved it" I state

"For pointing facts?" Teresa asks, smiling, riling me up even more.

"That's enough, both of you to the homestead for a gathering, Now! Tyler, what happened?" Newts asks, pulling Tyler away as Harriet and Sonya pull me and Teresa to the homestead in the main room where the gatherings are kept.

"Seriously?" Harriet says as we enter the room

"What happened?" Sonya asks

"Lexi here can't take a joke"

"You call that a joke, you're whacked Teresa, you did this on purpose, what are you trying to prove?" I ask her, Sonya keeping me back so I can't harm her.

"Nothing, I didn't actually think you'd punch me" She admits, patting her red cheek softly to access the damage and she smiles

"You must really like Minho huh"

"Fuck you!"

"Hey, stop" Harriet says before eyeing Teresa as asking her

"What did you say?"

"Everyone will find out soon enough, right, at the Gathering?"

Teresa smiles at me and it then sinks in, Minho's a keeper, he's going to be here to hear everything that was said between us, shit. She laughs and Harriet and Sonya share a look before the others join us, all circling us on chairs as Newt stands up alongside Harriet.

"Tyler told us everything, this will be a short gathering" Newt admits, arms crossed as he looks around the room at all the keepers

"What happened?" Harriet asks and Newt nods to Tyler to speak

Tyler eyes the Gladers in the room shyly before he cleared his throat, building the courage to speak "Teresa commented on Jackson and Lexi looking a bit too close, she accused Lexi of being..." Tyler looks up amongst all the faces and cringes

"Of what?" Sonya asks curiously

"Of being a slag, accusing her of jumping on Jackson now that Minho, erm" he looks at Minho and Minho sits up in his wooden chair, his arms folded over his chest, he stiffens, looking more curious than anxious as he glanced around the room before looking back to Tyler.

"That he was with Amy"

Sonya looks to me sadly and Harriet glares at Teresa

Teresa looks to Thomas before speaking and I glance at Newt, he looked annoyed and I would be feeling the same if it wasn't for the humiliation running through me, was that Teresa's plan all along?

"I wasn't going about it in a horrible way, I was curious," She says and Thomas gives her a disappointed look so she looks away, back at Harriet.

"That's not how Tyler explained it, was she just curious?" Newt asks him

"No" he states and Teresa gives him a glare and I step closer to Tyler in defence.

"She was being mean, said Lexi wouldn't hit her," He says looking to me

"But she did" Harriet mutters not sounding surprised and I smile

"You know I don't shy away from a challenge," I say and Sonya smiles and I try to hide mine but when Harriet shakes her head, almost cracking a smile I let it escape and Newt rolls his eyes

"Teresa did it purposely" Tyler speaks up and I send him a grateful smile and he takes a breath, looking relieved.

"You still hit first Lexi" Thomas says and our smiles drop

"I know" I admit looking into his brown eyes, trying to read him, Did he hate me now?

"With that concluded I vote Lexi spends a night in the slammer and Teresa 24 hours" Newt looks around the room and one by one everyone agrees, Thomas taking longer to answer and he doesn't face Teresa when he finally agrees. I smile at Teresa as we get taken out of the room and lead straight to the slammers. I don't chance a look back at Minho and I wondered if I'd have the courage to face him again.

"Sonya, I love you, and hopefully you love me too" I say to my blond friend as we are heading towards the slammers, Teresa and Harriet a couple feet ahead

"Course I do stick" She says with a friendly nudge

"Good, so please tell me you won't put me in the one next to hers" I say and she smiles

"Fine" She says and we head for the opposite side, Harriet nodding at hearing us

"Sorry about this" Sonya says as she locks the door from the outside as I take a seat on the wobbly chair.

"Don't be, I don't regret hitting her one bit" I say and Sonya smiles.

"So technically you two are like, the second to actually be put in these things, not bad this time around, what were you, 9th last time?" She asks

"Yeah" I admit laughing thinking back to when I had a fight with some girl from the last Glade because she hated I had multiple jobs

"Are you ok, with Minho I mean?" She asks and I smile

"I'm ok" I huff and she doesn't look too convinced

"I'll send Jackson to look at your throat and I'll come by later to give you a drink, I know it can get boring," She says and I nod

"Thanks Son"

 

Jackson came to check on my throat not long after. He bought me a sheet to wrap up in and a cup of tea making sure I was ok. He didn't bring the fight up and I was grateful for it. I didn't want to talk about it.

Isolation can be a horrible thing, locked up, nothing but the rats and your mind to keep you company, I'm sure after so long in here it would send you mad. I wished someone would come and keep me company because it was safe to say I wasn't sleeping tonight but when Minho appeared, crouching by the locked door the motto 'be careful what you wish for' ran through my head

"How is it in there?"

"Oh, great, you know. Russell's great company" I say eyeing the rat that sat in the corner of the slammer with me. Minho eyes the long-tailed creature with a smirk before looking back to me with a sad expression.

"I'm not with Amy slint-head!" He says 

"Tyler made it sound like we were a shucking couple in the gathering, spent the past hour convincing those shanks that I don't even know the girl" he admits rubbing the back of his neck

I supress an eye roll, of all the things that's what he's worried about, what, he doesn't want to ruin his reputation or something?

"you looked close" I say trying not to let any emotion slip into my words

"yeah, we'll we aren't! She approached me and we talked about the names, cracking jokes and she had this piece of grass in her hair that was annoying the hell out me but, I know how that must have looked" he says waving his hand and I smile

"Sure she's nice but she ain't fist swinging loud mouth over here" he says causing me to laugh

"sounds just your type" I tease

"it is"

We share a look and he sighs

"How's your throat?"

"it's fine" I say with a smile

"Thomas ain't happy with ya but I think he'll come around"

"I know he will, eventually. Does everyone else hate me?" I ask mostly just worried about Newt

"Not that I know of, think you have a small fan base now" he says with a laugh

"You and Jackson, you two good?" Minho asks and I frown

"We'll I assume we're still friends, he bought me the sheet" I say and he nods

"So friends?" He asks and I roll my eyes

"He's not my boyfriend!" I admit

"Good cause, the guy can't even run" he says causing me to laugh. He stands up and I lean forward to see him properly through the locked door

"I'm sorry about our erm, date by the way" he admits looking slightly uncomfortable

"What do you mean?" I ask confused

"I know I ruined it with the hair thing"

"Oh"

"Yeah, listen I like it up and down I just, reacted badly when I saw Jacksons name on your neck" he admits sheepishly

"Oh!" I mutter completely stunned

"We still good shank?"

"Yeah shank were good"

"good that, well I'd better get back into my nice warm bed" he teases and I sigh unhappily causing him to smile

"see ya later loser, try not to dream about me!"

"you wish" I say and we share a smile and he puts his hand on mine on one of the bars before he walks away.

I sit back on the chair with a smile on my face.

Are things finally back to normal between us now? 


	25. Chapter 25

It was a long night and I had never been so happy to see Harriet when she approached the next morning, letting me out the small prison cell.

I give her a wary look, not sure on how she feels about this but she smiles and throws her arm around me and I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding.

"Next time you're going to hit sombody, do it when there isn't people around"

"Good advice, thanks" I say and we share a smile

 

"Newt, wait up can I talk to you for a second!" I ask the leader a few hours later. I run up to him as I wipe a sheen of sweat from my forehead. 

I was meant to be showering but that could wait.

"Hey Lex, enjoy your stay in the slums?" I laugh, despite myself and feel at ease when he smiles, grateful he's cracking jokes and not my pride

"I'm so sorry about yesterday, she deserved it but still, I shouldn't have hit her" I admit and he nods in agreement, to which part I wasn't sure

"Just don't let it happen again, waste of time but I guess we have the time to waste" he shrugs

"So, you're ok with me?" I ask

"Yeah shank" he says nudging my shoulder

"I know you like Minho, Teresa guessed and used it to hurt you, I just don't get why or what her end game is, either way I can't blame you, if she was saying that to Sonya I know Sonya would strike out too"

I smile and nod, he was right but then again was Newt ever wrong

"Thanks Newt"

"I ordered Minho to give you a visit, things ok between you two now?" he asks

"You had to make him visit me?" I ask a little annoyed

"More like I gave him a little push, he was pacing. He was angry and didn't know wether to punch something or laugh it off, he had to convince the Glade he wasn't .. how did he put it, a Glade whore! it was hard hiding my smile"

I laugh although I knew I shouldn't, poor Minho although I didn't feel that sorry for him.

"Well things are weird but I guess they're back to normal?"

Newt's eyebrow furrows and his lips curl up in amusement at my comment/question and he taps me on the shoulder

"Glad to hear it shank, just no more punching people, yeah?"

"I promise!"

 

 

Things turned back to normal mostly afterwards. Amy apologised profoundly at the next archery class, saying she didn't mean to get me into trouble, saying how Teresa encouraged her to speak to Minho instead of worrying about his personality because for some reason she was still under the impression names mean soulmates, I waved her off though, I didn't care anymore.

Thomas came around once Teresa was released though Thomas had made Andy and Brett move into his room so he wasn't left with Teresa alone now.  
  
Teresa stayed away although she would still come and talk with Jackson when I wasn't there, it annoyed me but I never spoke up about it to Jackson, who was I to tell him who he couldn't talk to.

 

And the best of it all was me and Minho were back to normal and if anything there was even more teasing between us, along with open flirting, when it was just the two of us of course, not that we were alone that often. Mostly just when he had gotten himself injured in the maze and Jackson would leave to give us space.

 

When the next month came around and the new greenie appeared I knew straight away this wasn't just anyone. This man had clearly been here before, he didn't look confused or run off, klunk his pants or mope about, he walked around like he owned the place looking for someone and I just watched from my position on the grass with Brenda, working on more arrows.  
Harriet had already taught everyone everything she knows in her fighting classes so I needed to hurry up on making more bows, I was grateful I had Brenda to help.

We was talking about the runners when some boy walked past, I think his name was Steven.  
"Hey, who's the new guy?" I ask him and he stops and looks at us

"Dunno" he shrugs "But he said he's been here before" he states and walks off

"Thomas and the others will know who he is then" Brenda says and I nod

"Yeah, once were done here I say we hunt the new guy down, see who it is" I say

"It could be Chuck" Brenda says with a smile and I shake my head

"Nah, as much as I wish it was Thomas described him as a chubby 12 year old who's like a lovable younger brother, that new guy looks the complete opposite of that" I say and Brenda sighs sadly, she really wished it was Chuck for Thomas' sake.  
We find the guy easily, sat by the deadhead trees watching over the Glade.  
He looks at us as we approach him but he stays quiet, just looking at us

"Welcome back to the Glade" I say and he frowns

"What do you want?" He asks, not standing up

"Just wondering who you are?" I ask  
He stays quiet so Brenda speaks up

"You know Thomas Newt and Minho right?" she ask and his features soften, if only slightly.

"Yeah, I know em, that's why I'm sat here waiting for them to come back from their run" he says

"What's your name?" I ask him

"Gally"  
Me and Brenda share a look, we thought he was dead?

"Look no offence but I've sat over here to get away from everyone while I wait, what do you want?" he asks

"I'm guessing it's been awhile since you've talked to a girl?" I ask hoping to at least get the guy to crack a smile.  
Suddenly shouts catch our attention and we all look towards the south wall where a Lighter is walking through the door.  
Gladers are surrounding the thing but they're keeping their distance. The 2 guards we have holding their spears stepping away from the thing.

I start running towards the large door, my bow and arrows still on my back.  
By the time I get to the door the thing had made it a good 20 feet into the Glade and a half circle of Gladers stood surrounding it, stepping back with every step it takes.  
I push my way through the crowd, yelling at them to give me room. When I reach the front of the scared Gladers I waste no time getting my bow out and noting the arrow in place.  
As I'm taking aim Brenda and Gally step in besides me and I can hear Harriet yelling at people to give us room.  
I let my first arrow fly, hitting the thing in the head, changing tactics from last time.  
Silence fell as the thing fell on it's back with the force of the arrow then there were gasps of disbelief and worried questions as the Lighter slowly pushes itself up off the floor, standing again.  
We'll now I know they have no brain in that glob head of theirs.

"Brenda" I say, not even looking at her as I aim my second arrow at it's chest.  
Brenda hesitantly takes her bow from her back  
"I've never used it" She says, more of stating a fact than being worried as she grabs an arrow, aiming towards the Lighter still slowly making it's way towards us.  
"Think of it as target practice, aim for the lights!"  
I say then let my arrow fly, breaking one of the 3 bulbs in it's chest.

"Where's Alby?" Gally asks out of the blue  
I don't answer, not wanting to be the person to drop the news about his old leader being dead.

"He's great with a bow!" he states as I let another arrow fly.  
A few minutes passed, arrows flying, some missing, some hitting. But finally the thing fizzes out and drops dead.  
Gladers poke at it, take a closer look but I stay back. Harriet picks me up and Sonya picks Brenda up and yells are heard and it's like were damn saviours for a few minutes until were put down. I finally break a smile before I was put down, trying to ignore how good it felt to be praised by everyone and being the centre of attention for once. It was always Harriet and Sonya.  
Brenda smiles at me and I return it. We wasn't expecting that.  
Harriet frets the importance of those fighting lessons with a prep talk and now I had all the Gladers wanting a bow, looks like I had my hands full.

 

"I can't believe you're still working after what happened an hour ago" Jax says passing me one of his special tasty teas and he pulls out the stool besides me to join me for a tea break as Frypan, our latest sting victim sleeps peacefully, Hannah having to work to feed the Glade not been able to sit besides him.

"It's not like I ran the maze or did anything strenuous" I admitted with a laugh

"No, but you kicked ass out there" he says nudging me with a smile and I return it

"I'm still shocked one actually made it this far in, they're either getting braver or it just stumbled in by accident, what we betting?" I ask

"Pfft, I'd bet the first!" he admits as he blows on his drink

"Yeah, me too!" I admit

"So, how are you and Minho by the way, I haven't even asked since .." Jackson trails off, he didn't have to mention the Gathering ordeal and what Teresa and I did

"Were good, better actually, Teresa's plan failed" I admit happily and Jax's features screw up

"Plan? what makes you think she had a plan?"

I shrug "It just seemed like she was trying to rile me up and embarras me infront of Minho, she may be a bitch but she's smart, she knew if I punched her there would be a gathering, of course she knew Minho would have to come to the gathering, even if he didn't he'd find out we were arguining over him, she wanted to embarrass me in front of him, it worked but she didn't end our friendship and I think that was her plan!" I admit with a determined nod

"Those are some bold accusations!" he admits and I frown

"You wasn't at the Gatheing! did you at least hear what Tyler said, had you only heard Teresa's side of the story?" I question 

"I did, either way I don't think it was malicious, she was just teasing, I'll admit she had gone a bit too far but, I don't think hitting her was the right way to go about it"

I huff. As much as I liked Jackson he was starting to annoy me and I didn't want to argue with him, we were friends, we worked together and arguing would make working together uncomfortable so I sigh and bite my lip on the matter just shrugging and sipping my too hot tea, ignoring the burn, anything to not cause a fight.

 

The next day had been a busy one, more preparations were being made now the lighter had passed the threshold of the maze doors. More building, plans and weapons were needed, people were stressed, orders for more bows were barked at me and Brenda and all in all it was a long stressful day.I head to the bathroom after dinner as everyone wonders to the homestead to rest before lights out, I splashed water on my face and took a breath, I'd be grateful when the day was over. When I get back to the medhut the door is half open which is strange as it's always closed.

When I get nearer I hear voices, quiet but I could make out the words perfectly. It was Minho. I heard my name and step up to the door deciding to be nosey and listen in.

"I think you're forgetting I've known Lexi longer," Minho says pointedly

"I'm the one with her name on my neck" I hear Jackson says and I frown and lean in closer to listen more

"What's that got to do with anything, you really that whacked you think you're meant to be together?" Minho laughs after asking that and I hear movement

"So am I right? you like her?" Jackson asks

"What, no!" Minho says and sadness washes over me as I listen in.

"I didn't think so, you treat her like shit, you wouldn't do that if you actually liked her" Jackson says

"I don't treat her like klunk," Minho says, his voice stern

"Yeah you do, you know how many times she's come in here upset because you go against her? you single her out and she hates you for it!"

"What the hell would you know anyway, all you do is sit here watching people sleep!" Minho argues back defensibly

"I do more than that, you're changing the subject, so you know I'm right, you do single her out, why?" Jackson asks and I find myself wanting to know the answer too.

"You know why," Minho says a little quieter than before

"If I knew I wouldn't be asking"

Minho sighs

"Because I don't want her getting hurt, I don't single just her out, I've spent hours arguing with Harriet too! Harriet, Sonya and Lexi are the only girls that actually aren't afraid to do shit in this hell hole, they have balls and they don't like it when I tell them they can't do something"

I smile at that, grateful at his answer

"But we both know it's more than that, The best thing you can do for that girl is stay away from her!" Jackson says

"That a threat?" Minho challenges

"No, Jesus, that's my point, you're hot tempered and you've hurt her enough"

"I would never hurt Lexi!" Minho says angrily

"Really? I'm the one she comes to Minho, me!" Jax says and I hear Minho scoff

"You don't know anything Jackson, alright, I stop her from running the maze to protect her and you know that!"

"It's not just that though is it Minho!? Look all I know is you're bad for her and she knows it! that's why she comes to me, because I'm her friend, I don't hurt her!"

"Fuck you!"

I hear shuffling and something banging against the wall

"Go ahead, hit me!" Jackson says and that's all I need to hear to know I have to interfere before Minho starts throwing punches.

"Minho!" I say, pushing the door open fully and taking a step inside.

Minho has Jackson by his shirt, scrunched up in his fist with Jacksons back against the wall. Minho looks at me then releases Jackson's shirt, taking a step back.

I take a deep breath as Jax straightens out his shirt.

"What the hell?" I ask looking at them both

"Why don't you ask your friend here" Jackson says coldly and I give him a look before looking to Minho.

"Min?" I ask softly

"It's nothing" he says angrily, giving Jackson a glare before walking towards me, no, towards the door to leave.

I go to give chase as he leaves the room but Jackson's face screws up in pain as his hand goes to his back.

"Jax, you ok?" I ask heading over to him

"Yeah, I'm fine" he says though his face is saying the opposite.

"Let me take a look" I say and glance back to see Minho's retreating form and I sigh

"What was all that about?" I ask as he turns around. I lift up his shirt grateful he couldn't see the guilt on my face. I knew they were arguing over me.

"Just Minho being his usual brass self"

"He's not usually like that" I say sticking up for the runner knowing full well Jackson was out of line saying those things to him but if I tell him that he'd know I was listening in on their conversation.

"Yeah, sure" he scoffs and I roll my eyes as I run my fingers down his back

"You're fine" I admit, letting his shirt fall back into place.

He turns around rolling his shoulders and glaring at the door.

"No more arguing with Minho Jax, he's been through enough" I say and leave the room not giving him another look back or time to answer back as I close the door and head into the Homestead. Gladers fill up the floor, barely any cracks to be seen.

"Molly, you seen Minho?" I ask as she was the first Glader I recognised

"Yeah, he went into his room about a minute ago" she says pointing to his door. I nod my thanks and knock on the door but I don't hear anything

"Minho?" I call and knock again

The door swings open and he's stood there

"What?" he asks angrily. His frown dissapears when he realises it's me and he steps aside, nodding for me to come inside his room.

"How's Jacksons back?" He mocks as he closes the door behind me

"Do you honestly care?" I ask already knowing the answer and he smirks and sits on his bed

"So, you want to tell me why you was ready to punch Jackson unconscious?" I ask sitting beside him.

"Surprised he hasn't told you" He says

"He said you was being mouthy, didn't really pry" I lie, wanting to hear his side of the story, to know how it even began in the first place. I knew they didn't like each other but to catch them arguing was surprising.

"Didn't look that way to me a minute ago when you was rushing to see his back" he mutters angrily 

"I'm a med jack, it's second nature to treat the injured" I say and he looks at me and smirks with the roll of his eyes

"He doesn't deserve medical attention, I barely touched him anyway" he states 

"That's barely the point!" I inform him sternly and he rolls his deep brown eyes again

"So, really, what was up with you and Jackson?" I try again and he huffs going in a mood again.

"It doesn't matter, all you've got to know is he is an ass hole!" 

"No he's not" I say and then question why I am sticking up for Jackson, espeshally after the conversation we had in the med hut yesterday and Minho looks at me like I've lost it

"Sure he's nice to you, that's because he wants to get in your undies, thinks just cause your names on his neck and his yours that you're already his"

"That's ridiculous" I laugh "Jax doesn't like me that way" I smile amused but Minho isn't smiling and I drop my smile and narrow my eyes

"But the names don't mean anything" I say

"Try telling him that!"

"But.. that's crazy, what's Jax been saying?" I ask alarmed

"Just, stuff, it doesn't matter!" Minho says looking down to the floor

"Tell me Min!" I demand

He looks up at me, his eyes questioning

"Do you hate me? do you feel I single you out and treat you like shit?"

I think back to their argument, what I heard of it anyway. Jackson said he makes me feel like shit, he wasn't all wrong.

"Honestly, sometimes when you tell me I can't go in the maze I want to punch you but at the end of the day I know you do it because you're the keeper of the runners, whatever happens in there could easily be pinned on you and you don't want that so it's fine, why?" I ask wondering if he will tell me the nasty things Jax said to him

"I don't stop you going in there for that reason though, truth is I do single you out, more so than the other girls and I'm not even sorry, just sucks that you hate me because of that"

"I never said I hate you Minho! so why do you try to keep me in the Glade instead of running the maze?" I pry

"Because I can't have you die out there, I can't and my attitude ain't changing so, suck it up" he says causing me to laugh

"What's so bad about me dieing?" I ask and he narrows his eyes at me

"That's the stupidest question I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot of stupid questions" he says and I smile "Mostly from Thomas" he adds as an after thought 

"What?" I pry with a laugh, leaning closer to him and he huffs and looks at me sternly

"I'd die!" He says it fast, like if he didn't he wouldn't say it at all and I pull away and really look at him. He isn't looking at me anymore, just the floor while he twiddles his thumbs in his hands and I sigh

"I already felt like I had died the moment those walls closed and you guys hadn't returned, it's the same for me Minho and yet you get to run!" I state and he looks at me

"I'm stronger and faster than you"

"You're sexist!" I argue back and he sighs

"I care so fuck what you and Jackson think, I'm keeping you out of there until it's time we need to go, until then you can hate me all you want but my mind ain't changing"

I smile although I know I should be angry.

I put my hand on his shoulder and he looks at me

"I get it, you can't live without me, right?" I say with a cheeky smile to lighten the mood and he smirks and bites his lip

I raise my eyebrows in question as my eyes get pulled to his lips like a magnet and instead of a verbal answer I get his warm dry lips on my own, pushing on to mine, pushing my head back slightly and I look at him wide in shock. His nose touching my cheek and his eyes closed. He was kissing me, I almost couldn't believe it. I smile and relax, kissing him back with as much force and his lips start moving, moulding against my own in a sweet and tender way that had my heart in my throat.

His hand comes to the back of my head as I taste him as he breathes through the kiss. My mind clears and all their is is me and Minho and this room, nothing else.

 

"Stay with me?" The question came instantly, as soon as his warm lips were away from mine. I take a breath, still too dazed by the kiss to even comprehend his words. My first kiss was with Minho? Minho kissed me!?

His eyebrows raise and he looks at me curiously as I just smile to myself over what has just happened.

"What?" I ask, my cheeks hurting from the smile and he smiles back, glancing at my lips before back to my eyes

"Stay!"

My answer is my smile growing even bigger and a blush flushing my face.

 

"What do we tell the others?" I ask as I play with the buttons and the fabric on his faded blue denim shirt as we lay together in his bed, his left arm wrapped tightly around my back, his hand resting on my hip. His right hand is playing with a strand of my messy hair as I hover over him, a look on his face I couldn't quite put a name to but he seemed almost in a daze.

"What do you mean?" he asks, sounding distracted and I laugh

"This, Us!" I say shrugging and he looks into my eyes and kisses me. I laugh into the kiss and return it greedily, pulling on his shirt, crumpling up the material I was trying to smooth out only seconds ago.

I finally push him away although I didn't want to.

"Minho!"

"What, I like kissing you, " he says lightly, reaching for my lips again but I stop him with a hand on his chest and a firm look causing the runner to pout.

"What is this?" I ask him more seriously and he tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear, the one he had been playing with

"It's two Gladers that like kissing, ya shank!" He says teasingly and I laugh and this time, when he leans in to kiss me I meet him halfway, kissing him back and realising I really liked kissing him too. And that's what we did for what seemed like hours until we fell asleep.

 

Minho was slipping his shoes on when I woke the next morning. I sit up and wipe the sleep from my eyes, opening them to see Minho smiling at me.

"morning" I mumble and slowly climb out of bed

"how'd you sleep?" He asks me

"like a baby" I say still feeling half asleep.

"where are you going?" I question him

"For a shower, didn't mean to wake you" he says grabbing my hand and pulling me to stand in front of him.

"You didn't" I mumble as I look into his eyes. How did I get so lucky?

 

He smiles, giving my hand a little squeeze before letting it go and he leaves the room.

"You're welcome to join me" I hear him say as he's closing the door causing me to laugh.

 

I somehow avoid seeing Harriet, Sonya or Brenda that morning, getting changed and heading to the med room. Jackson was already there, along with Teresa, again.

Jackson smiles but I don't return it after their little argument last night and Teresa just ignores me, saying a quick goodbye to Jax before making a swift exit.

 

 

"Why's Teresa still coming in here?" I question a moment later

"Because we're friends" he admits

"I thought I was your friend?" I question finally having enough, especially after what Minho had told me last night. Did Jax really think we were meant to be, how absurd.

"You are, look if it makes you feel any better I wont talk to her anymore, it doesn't matter to me" he admits and I frown

He'd dimiss her that easily. for me? I didn't like it.

 

"How's your back?" I ask deciding to change the subject altogether.

"How's Minho's attitude?" He counters and I sigh

"The same as always, come on, let's have a look" I say motioning for his t-shirt to come off

He stands and pulls it off showing a well built physique, the fighting classes are putting a bit of muscle on to Jax and I can see now why people call him doctor sexy, he really was good looking. No where near as good looking as Minho! I smile, pushing the thoughts out and I walk behind him to look over his back.

"Does it hurt? there's no bruising" I say bending slightly as he was taller than me to get a good look at his back.

"Just a bit stiff"  he says moving his muscles and rotating his shoulders

"I think you'll be fine, just don't over do it at fighting today" I say moving around to stand in front of him.

"I think you should join me" he says grabbing his t-shirt but he just throws it over his shoulder

"What, at fighting?" I ask and scoff

"Yeah, Harriet was telling me how you used to in the other Glade you was in"

"Yeah" I say sitting down "That was back before everyone wanted to do archery and now we have waspers and sting victims every day, in the old glade I was lucky to get a patient a week" I say and he smiles

"Lucky? Come on, We only have one sting victim and he should be awake before practice, come on, I want to fight you" He says with a challenging smile and I can't seem to say no, well, challenge accepted Jackson!

 Outside, after the sting victim had gathered his strength and was dimissed from the med shack we head out, I hunt Brenda down, telling her I'll be late to archery as I was fighting Jackson, he deserved a beating anyway so that's how I was looking at it. Leaving Brenda to head towards Harriet and the fighters I catch Minho off to the side and he smiles, ushering me towards him with the shake of his head as he stood by the food hut.

He pulls my t-shirt when I'm in reaching distance and pulls me behind the small shack, away from prying eyes to kiss me, I laugh into the kiss at the surprise of his playfulness and catch my breath when he finally pulls away.

"You didn't join me in the shower" he says, his arms now wrapped around my lower back, keeping my body against his

"You wasn't serious?" I half ask half state

"I've always been serious!" he admits and I find myself blushing, remebering all the times Minho has joked about me joining him in the shower

"Why are we hiding?" I ask, simply just to start another conversation, my cheeks were burning hot from embarrasment as it was

"So no one can see" he says raising an eyebrow "Thought that was what hiding meant shank" he teases and I frown, leaning back, my hands on his chest to stop him from kissing me again and I try to ignore just how solid and big he felt against me

"Why?"

He frowns, looking at me properly now, and now with lust

"You want everyone knowing, after the whole Teresa thing?" he questions and I pull back away from his arms

"I ... Why, do you not want anyone knowing?" I ask confused

"No thank you, whats it matter to them anyway" he says flatly and I narrow my eyes

"So I can't even tell Sonya, Harriet?"

"If they can keep a secret, maybe" he admits, scratching the back of his head, he looked a little uncomfrotable, could he sense a fight too. I didn't want to fight, we had only just become a thing, whatever thing this was, I wasn't sure but I had had a glimpse of what it was like to hold Minho, to kiss him and I couldn't lose it.

"If that's what you want then, ok" I admit, albet a bit sulkily. He sighs and puls me towards him again, I bumped into his chest and supressed a smile at being so close to him, in his strong arms. My blood pumped around my body as my stomach flittered with butterflys.

"With the names and Teresa being, well teresa, just for now let's just, keep this between us, yeah?" I nod, I was unable to say no to Minho at the best of times, but in his arms, under the spell of his wide child like eyes I couldn't deny him of this. He smiles and plants a kiss on my forehead putting me in a daze as I smile

"You better go to your archery" he states but his arms don't pull away

"Actually I'm going to the fighting circle" I admit with a smile and he smirks down at me

"You are, this aught to be interesting" he says and suddenly I remeber who I'm up against, Minho wouldn't like that.

"I'm fighting Jackson" I state as I bite down on my bottom lip, scared of how he'd take the news but there was no point in hiding it or lieing, he'd find out, he wasn't running today.

He pulls back slghtly and his brows knit together for a few seconds and it's silent for another 7

"Minho?" I question, running patterns into his back under his shirt as I was still in his arms

"Why Jackson?" he asks as he tenses and I hoped it was because of Jackson and not because of my touch

"He asked and I thought he deserved to get his arse kicked so I thought why not"

Minho huffs but nods

"Yeah, that klunk breathe does deserve a beating, from me" I wait patiently as it seems Minho was perplexed about this but after a few seconds he huffs

"If you lose you're sleeping in your own bed tonight, how's that for some incentive" he says and I find myself laughing, even more when Minho cracks a smile

"And if I win?" I ask, pushing myself closer to Minho. He smiles, relaxing his arms and pulling me even closer

"You're joining me in the shower tonight"

My eyebrows raise and my mouth opens and Minho pecks me on the cheek before stepping away

"Now go beat up that prick and make me proud" he says and dissapears from behind the shack out of my sight and I shake my head with a smile as I feel my cheeks flush red again, he always managed to make me blush so easily.

 


	26. Chapter 26

 

Jackson and I stood in the circle. There weren't that many Gladers surrounding us. Ever since the Lighters had turned up unwelcomed there had been an impressive rise of Gladers wanting to take archery instead. Better late than never. Minho watched, though, his arms crossed against his chest, a confident look on his face which only aided in my determination. I will win and I will do it for Minho!

  
Jackson's smiling as Harriet looks between us both.

"You both ready?" She questions

we both nod a yes in answer

"ok, three, two, one. Fight!"

 

Jackson doesn't lunge, instead, he watches me warily causing me to smile.

"Scared?" I question

"A little" he admits causing our friends to laugh

"I'll take it easy on you" I suggest

"Don't because I won't! I've heard about your fighting skills" he admits and I smile

"Alright then" I shrug and wait patiently for Jackson to make his move.

 

Seconds later and he lunges. I just about step out of the way and I play dirty, kicking at his legs causing him to land on his stomach, his hands coming out to stop him from face planting as cheers riot from around us. I hear Tyler cheer my name which edges me on. I kneel on his back and push his arm up his back in an arm lock before he could push himself up.

Jackson hisses in pain so I loosen my knee and my grip and Jackson wiggles out of it, lunging for me and pulling me up to my feet.

"You cheat!" I mutter and he smiles as he tries pushing me out of the line. I dig my feet in and push back, Jackson was stronger than I had anticipated. I was only 2 feet away from losing. I look to the line then back to Jax. He smiles and I return it before ducking out of his grip and pushing him off balance causing him to fall, his arm out of the line.

"And we have a winner!" Harriet shouts grabbing my hand and raising it as Jackson gets to his feet. He picks me up and cheers for me causing me to laugh.

"I took you as the sore loser type," I say to him

"You're wrong!" He smiles and he places me down, ruffling my hair and I slap his hand away laughing. I beam at Minho through the gaps of the small crowd but he isn't smiling, not until he noticed me looking at him anyway by then my smile had already dropped. What was wrong with him? I had won, that's what he wanted so why did he look so sour?

  
"We all knew you'd win!" Tyler says to me as we leave the circle  
I side hug my little brother from another mother as I stand with him and Jax laughs.

"Thanks" he mutters though he's smiling

"Happy you got to fight me?" I question Jax

"Not as happy as you are for beating my ass" he admits

"You were due a beat down! Only right I was the one to open the can of whoop-ass on you!"

"Is that right?" He asks through laughter and I watch as Minho walks away, heading into the shower room.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna go shower, can you make sure no one follows?"

"Sure" Tyler says and I leave the group of fighters and head after Minho to see what his problem was, trying to push down my nerves as I know what's about to happen.

 

"Min?" I call as I enter the shower room. I don't hear a reply but I can hear water running so I walk into the room and grab a towel and head towards the end stall where I spot Minho, walking into the spray of warm water, wetting his fluffy hair, causing it to flatten on top of his head.

  
His head turns, facing me as I stop a few showers away. My breaths were shallow and my heart threatened to jump out of my chest with how nervous I was.

"I didn't think the bet would take place so soon after" I admit as I eye Minho's clothes on the bench in the middle of the room making me know he was, in fact, naked. I swallow a lump but my throat just feels drier from it.

"Lessons have just begun, we have an hour before anyone's going to need a shower" he admits as he runs his hands over his face to remove excess water. I swallow again, really needing a drink and I take a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves down. It didn't seem to help.

"Are you ok?" I ask and not just to delay the inevitable. There really was something wrong with Minho at the circle, I know I wasn't imagining things.

He turns to face me and leans his arms on the metal slates that provide privacy. I do the same in the shower next to his, feeling his warm damp arms as I face him. Our faces inches apart.

"Can I ask you something, about Jackson?"

"Yeah"

"I get it he's erm, popular with the ladies," he says with a smirk and then he looks at me and the smirk goes and he clears his throat, his face going serious

"You and him, you don't like him do you, I mean the guy can't even run" he snorts and I find myself smiling.

"No! We're just friends Minho" I say still smiling and he smiles and kisses me. I return the kiss, his lips wet.

When we pull away he's smiling and nibbling the right side of his lip.

"That's all I needed to know, now get in here shank!"

He flicks water at me causing me to giggle and I take a deep breath and start taking my clothes off in the shower next to him. Minho looks away giving me privacy which I'm grateful for. I fold my clothes and place them beside Minho's and then I step towards Minho's shower, his ass a welcome view.

"Don't look!" I order as I step behind him, my hands holding his hips. He places his hands on mine and slowly turns around to face me.

"Min!" I exclaim alarmed but he's ignoring me, his eyes drinking me in and I look down embarrassed, hoping he likes what he sees.

"You're beautiful" he lifts my chin with his fingers and places his lips on mine. Our lips move together as the water cascades over our tired bodies.

My hands clasped at his hips as he bought his to mine. He didn't pull me closer, our bodies staying apart. I rub my thumbs against his skin and catch the bump of his scar and I pull away, my eyes roaming the long line across his stomach.

Minho's eyes are boring into mine.  
"I'm ok, thanks to you" I look up into his eyes and he gives me a small reassuring smile which I try to return before looking back to his scar.  
"I thought I'd lost you" I mutter sadly remembering the pain of loss that night  
"But you didn't! I'm right here Lexi" he tucks a few strands of hair behind my ear and I look back up at him  
"I.."

  
"What?" He questions me and I look away, not sure if I should say it. Was it the right place or time for that?  
"Lexi!"  
I look back up to him and take a deep breath hoping to pull in courage as well as oxygen.  
"I love you Minho!"

I don't know where it came from, I just had this urge to tell him how I felt. I wasn't even sure how long I had loved him. This instant maybe? Or maybe it was before today, I couldn't be sure but I was sure of my feelings and right now I loved this man!

Minho's smile lights up his face.  
"I know you do" I scoff. Here was me being deadly serious, even slightly romantic and he has the audacity to sass me.

"I love you too!" He admits, taking me by surprise and his lips attach to mine before I could think of a reply to that.

his kiss is gentle and reassuring, letting me know he feels exactly the same and I let his lips and touch wash away the pain and stress of the last couple months. Where we are right now there was no one but the two of us and that's all that matters.

 

~

 

Thomas, Sonya, Newt, and Brett returned from their running, Sonya looking exhausted as she plopped down beside Newt.

"Still no number?" I guess by the looks of defeat on their faces as Harriet joins us around the fire for last meal of the day that Fry and Hannah were currently cooking up.

"Nope, we have run that section 100 days and still nothing" Son mutters, resting her head on Newts shoulder. He runs his hand over her light hair which was messy and falling out of the hair tie and I smile at the two of them and catch Minho talking with Tyler and Chris and he smiles. I blush and look away as the memory of our shower earlier comes to mind, not that I could think of anything else all day anyway.

"I'll run tomorrow if you two want to take over my fighting class?" Harriet offers

Sonya and Newt look at each other and Newt opens his mouth but Harriet beats him to saying anything

"I know your ankles playing up again Newt! so you two can take it easy tomorrow and I'll run!" She insists and clearly, they didn't have the energy to argue, they knew they wouldn't win anyway, it was rare you won a fight against Harriet, verbally or physically.

"I'll run with you, I'm feeling out of shape lately" I suggest and Harriet eyes me for a few seconds and then nods and I nod back grateful she's letting me. Yes, I don't enjoy running but were on the last number now, as soon as we find that we are out of here and I need to get back into shape if we will be running for our lives soon.

 

"You're what?!"

I knew Minho wouldn't be happy about this but then again he wasn't before we became a secret thing so I knew I'd be in trouble now.

"We don't want Andy running and with Son and Newt not running I knew they'd need another body out there, besides I also knew you'd be coming with" I express as I sit on Minho's makeshift bed on his bedroom floor, Minho stood in front of me, glaring down at me.

"Damn right I'm coming in there with you!" He exhales and his features soften

"You know I have to go back in there Minho, you can't always protect me right," I say, my voice soft and he sits beside me

"Someone has to try, you're one crazy shank, where's your blue flower" he teases and I laugh and lean my head on his shoulder

"Thank you"

"For what?" he questions as he looks at me

"For not trying to make me stay behind"

"You're stubborn, just like your leader and honestly I miss running with you, how about we get some rest, long day of running for us tomorrow," he says wth a smile and I return it.

 

Minho laughs as I slide down the maze wall as we reach the end, the large luminous red circle floating against the cold stone.

"You're out of practice shank" he teases and I roll my eyes at him as Brett smiles and sits beside me

"Says the guy panting like a dog" Brett throws back, clearly taking my side

"Yeah well, least I ain't sweating like Fry" Minho points, nodding at the sweat patches on Bretts shirt

"Oh yeah, real funny slint-head"

Minho winks at him and I laugh as Harriet shakes her head, heading up to the circle

It flickers to life, the light increasing, sending the narrow maze way red in color and showing the number 101.

"Great" Harriet mutters annoyed, walking away from the red number and snatching the water bottle out of Brett's hand, Brett just giving her a sad smile. How high will this thing go before it gives us a green number?

 

 

"Have I ever mentioned how sexy you are all hot and bothered" Minho whispers into my ear as we reach the last hallway, the Glade in our sights. We were walking now, the others walking ahead of us.

I look at Minho laughing

"You mean sweaty and shattered, you find that sexy?" I question

"Yes!"

I look over Minho, about to call him weird when I notice just how hot he looks all sweaty, his shirt sticking to his figure snugly, his veins visible along his arms, his chest heaving in and out. damn.

"I see what you mean," I say in what I hope is a flirty tone, shaking my eyebrows for added effect. He looks down at himself and smirks at me before slapping my ass and running off towards the showers before I could retaliate.

I look down at myself as I head towards the homestead to pick out some fresh clothes wondering what he saw in me when I realize my white t-shirt was slightly transparent with how sweaty I was and you could make out my white bra underneath. Oh dear lord! that a-hole!

  
"Going to see lover boy again?" Brenda teases as I sit with her at dinner. Sonya beside me on the other side and Harriet and Tyler opposite me

I give her a look with Ty being with us but she just smiles

"Sleeping in his room again?" Harriet asks casually like it's a regular occurrence, although lately, it has been

"Wait, you and Minho, seriously?" Tyler seemed excited as he asks and I roll my eyes and catch Minho sat with Newt, Thomas, and even Gally as they all ate last lunch.

"We're not serious! please, can you not tell anyone!" I beg the youngest Glader, staring at the rest of them so they knew I meant for them too. Brenda holds her hands up and Sonya laughs.

"I - I won't, promise Lex" Tyler says and I nod gratefully

"He doesn't want anyone knowing ok," I say quietly

"So you are officially official?" Harriet pries with a smile

"Kinda" I shrug and Sonya squeals and I look around scared we are gong to draw attention

"Don't worry Lexi, no one will know, you done it yet?" Son asks and I nearly spit my soup everywhere as I look at Ty

"What? kissed, have they kissed" Sonya lies to Ty and he looks around at us all confused

"No!" I say, looking away from them all as I feel my cheeks burn red. Memories of Minho's skin on mine, of him holding me, and then I remember the door knocking, asking if I could hurry up as someone had eaten dirt and got really messy fighting with Harriet, leaving Minho to sneak out. It was meant to be romantic and sweet but it got ruined, it was funny though. They all hold in laughter at my reaction, apart from Ty who still looks confused

"No one say anything ok! this stays between us!" I order and they all nod and I look back over to Minho hoping those guys could keep their mouths shut.

Minho winks at me and I scoff a laugh, shaking my head. It's like living with children.

 

 

 

 

 


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank everyone who has been patient and stuck with me during this crazy long story. I know my updates have been none existent for a while due to my 2 jobs and I'm sorry for that but I want you to know it means the world to me that you guys are still reading and commenting so thank you.

"There you are been looking everywhere for you," Minho says after another long day of us running to find another red number.

I wanted time away to think, the conversation last night with Harriet and Sonya and Tyler had put me in a bad mood and thinking about Minho wanting to keep us secret and here I was, letting it get to me.

I was sat by the trees by myself, working on an arrow. With us in the last section, I wanted us to be prepared and arrows are always needed, especially with most Gladers owning a bow of their own now and only a dozen arrows each.

I had showered once coming back and decided on some peace and quiet, I rarely got alone time and what better way than to enjoy the breeze and craft before the sun goes down. Didn't stop my worries though, in fact, the silence and alone time aided in those.

"Hey" I greet not looking up at him. He plonks down beside me, ruffling the fallen leaves around him and nudges me. I smile, finally looking up to him and he graces me with a smile that crinkles his beautiful brown eyes and causes his dimples to show, I really did get lucky and the arrow is forgotten as I reach up to kiss him, needing to knew we're ok. His hands come up to my arms to hold me, a look of surprise just before our lips touch but then he's smiling into the kiss.

I fall back lightly, Minho landing on top of me and he deepens the kiss and my skin heats up, my heart races and my breathing labours. I had never kissed like this before, we had never kissed like this before. He nudges his way between my legs and rests his weight on top of me, not enough to crush me but enough to send me crazy. His hand holds my cheek as his other moves down my arm and my side, coming to a stop at my hip in a firm grip.

I moan as he pushes his body against mine, a feeling in the pit of my stomach I'd never felt before, running through my body causing my toes to curl and I snap my eyes open and push him away. We both breath heavily and sit there in silence for a few seconds. My moan scared me, I didn't want to embarrass myself any further, nor did I want to go any further. Yesterday I was full of nerves as we kissed but there was something primal in the way we just kissed, no worries, no pressure, I liked it but at the same time, I wasn't in the mood.

"I'm sorry" Minho mutters, looking at me closely and I shake my head

"No erm, I am, I just" I look up to him, noticing the worry on his face and I frown.

"I just don't want to do that, I mean not yet" I admit, my cheeks heating up in embarrassment and he smiles and nods

"I get it," He says and I'm grateful for it

"I'll be ready for that when you're ready to tell everyone about us" I admit and grab the arrow and stand up. Minho frowns, looking to the indent of leaves where our bodies had rested as we kissed and I walk away feeling like an idiot. Why was I so angry all of a sudden? I knew one thing though, I was really good at putting myself into moods.

 

I find myself walking into the med hut seeking out Jackson, like I always do when I feel like klunk.

"Oh hey there stranger, finally remembered I exist have you" he teases and I smile as I close the creaky door behind me

"Sorry Jax, been running, remember" I admit as I sit on a stool and he smiles

"I know, want a drink?"

"Sure," I say with a smile missing his herbal teas that you either loved or hated.

"There you go," he says a minute later as he hands me a cup, sitting beside me on another stool

"You ok, you seem quiet?" he asks and I shrug

"Just a lot on my mind" I admit

"Teresa still giving you hell?" he asks and I shake my head

"No, just .. the usual," I say blowing on the drink

Jax sighs "Minho?" he questions and I look at him in shock.

He always knew when something was up with me and he was always there to listen when Minho did something wrong. Could the other Gladers be right, about the whole name thing, could Jackson really be the one I'm meant to be with? Although we haven't been as close as we were before he had that fight with Minho and he befriended Teresa we can still talk and he can still notice when something was wrong.

I rub my hand over Jackson's name on the back of my neck and exhale.

How could I think that? Jackson may be my friend but my heart fell for Minho and it still beats just for him, even if at times my head was all over the place at least my heart always knew what it wanted.

"I don't want to talk about it" I admit

"You never do"

I give him an annoyed look but then realize he's right and I sigh.

"We're together!" I decide to tell him

Jacksons eyes widen and he just looks at me for a while

"You're serious!" he admits and I nod a yes in answer and he looks away, his brows furrowing

"I guess a congratulation is in order," he says still not looking at me

"No Jax, no one knows" I admit and he finally looks back at me

"Why?"

"Because he doesn't want them to know," I say

"Again, why?" he asks

"Because Teresa and the shit she caused, at least that's what I think anyway" I admit

"What did he say was the reason?" Jax asks lightly

"The same thing, that he didn't want people knowing with what Teresa did, he also said because of the names, people still believe they mean soulmates, that would just cause people to question it more" I admit

"Isn't that what you want, though! you don't believe the names actually mean that so you should be telling everyone because of that reason alone!" he insists and I smile sadly.

"I'm glad someone gets it and understands me" I admit sulkily and Jax sighs

"I've known you a long time Lexi, I know you are strong and able to hold yourself in arguments and fights, you have a big heart and wear it on your sleeve. I also know you love Minho and because of that you are willing to do anything for him, I hope he knows how lucky he is"

I smile and lean against him and he leans his head on mine

"Tell everyone, Lexi, Minho will understand if he loves you"

"And if he doesn't?"

Jax is quiet but his silence says it all. I close my eyes and nod, determined to tell everyone about us if Minho liked it or not.

 

"What are you doing here?" Harriet asks as I walk through my bedroom door that night after leaving Jackson's side.

"You and Minho had a fight?" Brenda asks

"No! I just want to sleep in here tonight" I admit closing the door behind me

"So you should" Harriet teases and I smile and climb between them in the bed. I had missed sleeping in here with my friends.

Minho didn't come knocking, wondering where I was and I tried to not let that get to me.

 

 

I left the homestead later than usual the next morning, taking my time so I knew everyone would be out there, including Minho.

I grab my bowl and head for Frypan and Hannah, still happily together and flaunting it to the Glade. As Tyler, who was beside me was chatting away to Frypan I turn to spot Sonya and Newt laughing together as Newt nudges her playfully and then my eyes go to Minho, sat up the table, his back towards me as he eats, not even talking to anyone.

He hadn't said hello and he hadn't even looked up at me or noticed I was here.

I thank Fry and Hannah and sit in front of him opposite him on the table.

We meet eyes but Minho just looks away, no smile, no hello, nothing.

What did I do to deserve the silent treatment?

"Have I done something wrong?" I ask the keeper

"No" he mutters as he spoons in the last of his porridge

"So why are you ignoring me?" I ask

"I'm not, I just. I waited up for you and you didn't show so I just assumed you were ignoring me" he admits as he looks up into my eyes

"Thought you wanted us kept a secret? if I sleep in your room every night people will know about us" I admit, not bothering to keep my voice low but Minho doesn't seem to notice as he continues to just look at me.

I catch Jax from another table looking over at us and I return his look as our eyes catch. he gives me a small reassuring smile and I half return it.

Minho follows my line of sight to Jax and then turns back towards me, a frown on his handsome face.

"I'm going running today and I'll be tired when I get back," he says as he gets up, grabbing his bowl

"Meaning?" I ask as he doesn't elaborate as he steps away from the table

"Meaning I'll see you tomorrow" he states and walks away, handing Fry his bowl and he heads to grab his running shoes as they would be leaving any minute.

I'm just looking at him until he's out of sight, too angry and stunned to do anything

"You ok?" I hear Jax's voice call and I look up, knowing he was talking to me. I look over at him to see Teresa sit opposite him, giving us both a look

I give Jax a look to say far from it and I run after Minho, passing Thomas and Brett on the way.

 

Minho was walking around the small shed as I run into him, my hands catching his broad chest, his hands coming up to my arms, his eyes wide in shock.

"What?" he asks, his tone worried.

"You!" I state angrily, my nostrils flared. His eyes narrow and he lets me go, stepping back. he could see I was angry

"You've been nothing but distant Minho, what did I do, was it because I said I wasn't ready?" I ask and he shakes his head looking down

"Lexi, no, no I'd never rush you! I'm just, Jackson, I don't trust him and he pisses me off"

I roll my eyes feeling the need to laugh

"Jackson, again, seriously Minho it's you I love, not him!" I say and Minho smiles, pulling at my waist and capturing me in his arms

"Say it again!"

"I love you Minho!"

His lips captured mine and I sink into it, his senses surrounding me. All too soon he pulls away and I'm left breathless

"Like I said it's him I don't trust, not you! What was the real reason you didn't come to my room last night?" he asks as he stares at my lips

"I was angry" I admit as I play with the loose thread on his shirt

"What did I do?" he asks, his arms pulling me in tighter to him

"I just couldn't stop thinking about how you want us to be some shameful secret, and that you didn't come looking for me" I admit as I look into his dark eyes

"I thought you didn't want to see me, that's why I didn't knock!"

"Knock?" I ask

"I was stood outside your door last night but I heard you girls laughing and thought you'd want girl time, I didn't want to pull you away" he admits, shrugging his shoulders, one hand coming up to push some stray strands behind my ear "So I just waited, I knew you'd show up if you wanted to"

"So it wasn't because you didn't want anyone to see us?" I ask

"I don't care about that anymore, not if it's making us fight! let the shanks think what they want" I smile and this time I reach up and connect my lips to his larger ones and my hands roam his strong defined body as he grips my thighs.

"Get a room!" We hear Brett mutter and I turn to see him and Thomas with smiles on their faces and we pull away slightly flustered though I'm still in his arms

"I'm sorry for being angry at you! I should have just spoken to you about it" I whisper to him

"It's OK! I'm sorry too, Will I see you when I get back?" he asks

"If you think you'll have the energy"

"I always have the energy for you" he winks and I scoff, slapping his shoulder playfully and he kisses me on the tip of my nose, taking me, and the guys by surprise and I smile and move away

"Be safe boys!" I state

"Oh we will," Thomas says smiling and I roll my eyes and head back to the others with a smile on my face

 

"You and Minho ok?" Jax asks as I head back to everyone and I sit beside him, eyeing Teresa for her to instantly look away although I knew she was still listening.

"Yeah, looks like we are really good," I say in an overly happy tone just for Teresa and Jax smiles

"Good, I'm glad. So, have you told him your plan about, you know" he looks around at everyone and I smile

"He said, and I quote 'Let the shanks think what they want'" I admit and Jackson smiles again, side hugging me and I laugh

"I'm glad it worked out, I was ready to kick his ass for you" he admits and I scoff a laugh

"No offence Jackson but if I can take you then I know Minho can!"

"I know but it would make me look heroic" he admits and I laugh as Jackson smiles into his bowl

 

I spend the morning with Jackson in the med hut, I wasn't running today but that was no reason to sit about and do nothing. Brenda was making arrows and I had taught everyone everything I know about archery, all they had to do was practice in their own time, the same with fighting although Harriet still taught them by beating them up, practice makes perfect.

Gally was working on the homestead with a guy called Harry and our other builders, Gally muttering something about fortifying and knowing what we are up against, neither of us stopped him, Minho's words were 'He may be the biggest klunk face out there but he knows what he's doing when it comes to building' Harriet decided she didn't care what he got up to, she didn't like him after what she had heard and neither of us could blame her.

 

At dinner I sit with the girls and Newt and tell them that me and Minho aren't going to keep our relationship quiet anymore and I couldn't stop them planning away if I tried, I couldn't see Minho being happy about this. So, at the end of my shift at the med hut, leaving a little early to catch the guys I head for the entrance of the maze, waiting for the runners and to tell Minho that there will be a party tomorrow, in honour of us.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An important question to my awesome readers.  
> Smut or no smut?  
> I'm not sure how old my readers are for this story so I was just wondering if it would be better to leave it be or add a bit of Minho loving? let me know in the comments x


	28. A little smidge of Sonewt

I wasn't waiting long until I saw silhouettes of the runners at the end of the narrow walkway.

The boys returned, sweaty, tired, but in one piece. I smile as Minho spots me, a smile forming on his lips, as tired as he looked.

I hand them the bottle of water, knowing full well their water supply would be none existent come to the end of the run.

Minho grabs it, having picked up his pace after seeing me, he passes it to Brett who then passes it to Thomas and we all head towards the food hut.

"Any luck?" I ask

"Nope, still red" Thomas says though he doesn't seem disappointed. I didn't exactly blame him, the day we find the green number is the day we make a run for our lives to get out of here and we wasn't sure if we were ready for that, honestly I wasn't sure if we would ever be ready for that

After eating, Thomas and Brett head for the showers but me and Minho sit on the grass as the sun starts to rapidly fade and Minho enjoys the breeze on his hot skin.

"So, I didn't just meet you because I knew you'd miss me" I admit and Minho laughs

"There's going to be a party for us tomorrow," I say keeping a close eye on Minho's features, he didn't seem bothered by it as he looks at me

"I don't have to dance do I?"

I laugh and shake my head

"We don't even have to turn up" I admit and he laughs, taking my hand in his

"You joining me in the shower once those losers are out?" he asks

"Do I have to?"

"Yep!"

I smile and feel my cheeks heat up

 

"They look happy," Sonya says with a smile towards the latest couple as she spots them both heading towards the showers

"They do, I'm glad they both got together" Newt admits as he smooths out the kinks in Sonya's long blonde hair as it fell loosely down her back. Sonya smiled warmly at her boyfriend, his hand soothing her as they sat by the fire, enjoying time to themselves outside as everyone was now inside the homestead.

"I feel sorry for Jackson" Sonya says, looking back to see Newt's reaction.

Newt smiles "He seemed happy for her this morning, he will have to get over her"

Sonya leans her head back on to Newt's chest, stopping his soothing hand movements and he wraps his arms around her as she snuggles into him.

"Would you get over me if someone else beat you to me?" She asks, her eyes twinkling with mischief

Newt snorts a laugh and squeezes her for a second

"No, I'd win you over! and do whatever it takes to make you see how much you mean to me" he states with a surety that made you know he meant every word. Sonya finds herself smiling, not that Newt could see. She knew she had gotten lucky when she found Newt.

"So what makes you think Jackson isn't going to do the same for Lexi?" Sonya wonders aloud

"Jackson doesn't love Lexi, just got close to her as they worked together," Newt says

Sonya turns around, climbing over Newt causing the slender blond to fall back with a smile and she climbs on top of him, hovering over him.

"We worked together, when we ran or when we plowed the weeds, what makes me so special?"

"We'de be here all night if I had to say everything that made you special," he says, his playful smile still on his face as he couldn't take Sonya seriously with her towering over him in this position.

"I like the thought of that, being out here all night, maybe you can tell me all the amazing things about me while we cuddle under the stars" She beams and Newt captures her face with his hand, looking serious and sexy as he captures her pretty blues in his deep browns

"How about you tell me all the great things about me while I kiss my way down your body, huh?" he asks, his brow raised in question

Sonya bites her lip with a small chuckle and kisses his lips in a quick teasing peck

"No deal" She says playfully and they both laugh, Newt pulling her down on top of him so he can squeeze her in a playful cuddle as she giggles into the cold night air

"I love you Newtybear" She whispers

"I love you too babybear"

Sonya chuckles and pecks him again before sliding beside him to cuddle into his side and enjoy the peace and quiet in each other's arms, before the harsh reality of their life here and what's to come can ruin it.


	29. Chapter 29

 

A wet but warm hand held my body securely as soft lips explored my own tentatively. His actions soft and loving to help my beating heart. The hot water spraying above us, gliding down tanned skin doing nothing to dim the sensitivity I hold for Minho's touch.

Grievers, Waspers, Wicked, Mazes, Life, Death, numbers and responsibility. Nothing mattered as Minho picked me up, wrapping my legs around his hips, my back against the cold wooden wall. Anxiety and fear riddled me immobile as we kissed. Was I ready to go this far with Minho? He pulls back, sensing my hesitance and as I look into those brown eyes I know I want this, him! and the thing really stopping me is fear.

"We don't have to Lex" A hand soothes my face as he moves my wet hair to behind my ear. I scoff a laugh and he cocks an eyebrow at me, still holding me tight like I weighed nothing. "I've faced Grievers and I'm scared of, of this" I look down at our naked bodies and he smiles, rubbing his thumb across my cheek. "How about I wash your back?" he asks and I shake my head

"Just be gently Min!" I say lightly and he looks deeply into my eyes and then puts me down, ignoring my disappointing look.

Before I can complain though his lips are kissing my neck, the water hitting his head as I lean mine back.

"What are you doing?" I ask, my words soft

"Just relax" he hums and I smile as I leave him to his kisses on my skin. Suddenly his hands grip my hips and his lips come back to mine. Slowly, his hands glide down towards my thighs as he squeezes and soothes them, my nerves picking up again.

"Relax," he says although from me in this position it sounds mocking.

"And you'd be relaxed if I was doing this to you?" I shoot back

He shakes his head in a 'no' with a smile before kissing me again and he cups me. I jump and grip his shoulders as embarrassment flares through me, heating my cheeks and I closed my eyes, my head down as I bite my lip.

"I've got you, Lex, you trust me?" He asks

"Only with my life" I mutter

"Good because come this time tomorrow you're gonna be wanting more" I laugh at how absurd he sounds and allow his fingers to attack my body

 

We leave the showers, my cheeks still crimson and my body hot and bothered. I was sore and Minho had a smile the size of his ego. Honestly, I couldn't wait to do that again.

 

~

The guys returned from running to find another girl here the next day, the newest Greenie hadn't recalled her name yet but was stuck to Hannah and Fry like glue, not that I was surprised, they both had kind faces and most the guys were intimidating to be around, they sure liked to tease the newbies. The Greenie wasn't the only new thing to come up that cell block, there was a crate full of jugs of what looked like honey but after a little taste test, we were assured it wasn't honey and Jax was worried for Henry's health after offering to try the golden gooey liquid. Now the jugs were just stacked into the med hut until we could figure out what we were supposed to do with them, according to Henry it had a chemical-type taste to it, there was going to be a group gathering about it tomorrow to see if any of us had any ideas.

I was with Jax most of the day although there was no one to see to, the waspers were sticking to the maze which was good news for Gladers, just not the runners. Jackson and I worked on more recipes for his herbal tea, Fry didn't mind us taking some fruit from his outside pantry. 

The number was now on 97 and tomorrow I would be running and this time I didn't even offer, Minho asked and it was before he even heard of the Lighter attack we had earlier today. They had put the thing down before Jackson and I could even make it to the large crowd by the South gate. I was so proud as I saw the thing covered in arrows, no one got hurt and our arrows were improving, agiler and most didn't even need repairing once pulled out. Although this place felt like a curse I felt blessed today as I looked over the Glade, we were prepared, Gally, as much as the guys hated him for his past, had done an incredible job at fortifying the building, the med hut included and now he was working on gates that could help us when/if the doors stay open when the sun disappears, now that day I wasn't looking forward to. I just hoped even with the help of the other builders he had gathered and all the wood and supplies we had collected over the past few months that he could do it in time.

 

"Two parties in two days, what a waste of Newt's and Gally's disgusting concoctions," Minho says as he sits beside me near the fire. The party for the greenie was underway and I smile, thinking back to yesterday's party, our party. It was just like any other, boring and a waste of energy, we've had so many parties after being here for so long, any excuse to forget about our troubles I guess.

Minho takes my masons jar, full of the very liquid he despised and takes a sip, causing me to laugh.

"How about we ditch the party and go for a run?" he asks and I quirk my brow up at him

"Come on" He takes my hand and pulls me up and Newt's drink is left behind as we childishly run into the darkness of the Glade to race each other around the edge.

Two walls we had run, Minho ahead of me the whole time, he finally slows down as we approach the third wall.

"Going too fast for you tiny?" he teases and I nudge him, causing the man to nudge me back, so of course I retaliate and give it all I've got, he tumbles, his hand scraping the grass as he gathers his sensed and balance. I frown because he was so close to falling over.

"Bitch!" he mutters and pushes into me, sending me flying and landing on my back. I gasp as I hit the floor and laugh in shock

He laughs at me as he stops, standing over me.

"You bastard!" I pounce and all my training and fighting with Harriet over the last 3 years have been worth it as I trip Minho, landing on top of him, holding him in place.

He leans his head up, as he couldn't move his arms and surprises me with a kiss. I lean into him and kiss him back. Occupied my hold loosens and he takes the advantage, pulling free of my constraints and rolling us so he's on top of me and I laugh before my lips are captured again and my body reacts to him. I hum into the kiss and push up into him, wanting more and Minho's hand snakes down to my hip, pushing his hand up my top to feel skin, his hand cool on my hot skin.

His lips leave mine, leaving me panting into the cold night air and I arch my back as his lips attach to my neck and his hands roam over my body. I lean my head back and peer at the trees in the distance, covering the corner of the wall and a speck of red runs between the leaves and I sit up, taking Minho by surprise.

"What? Lighters?" he asks, suddenly on high alert and I smile

"No, Beetle blades"

Minho laughs and I find myself joining in

"Come on" Minho stands up and offers me his hand and we giggle together as we walk back to the party hand in hand.

 

~

 

"We ready shanks? No falling behind!" Minho's last words were aimed at Newt as we entered the maze at a well-paced jog to keep up our energy. "Like I've never heard that before," Newt says with an eye roll as Sonya gives Minho an unamused look causing me to shake my head.

"Holy fudge biscuit!" Minho pants and I couldn't stop quick enough, bumping into his back. He glances back at me, his arm coming out towards me protectively before he looks back down the next turn. With the stomping of trainers on concrete at a halt and our breaths calming down we hear it before we see it. The fluttering of a million tiny wings, a strum of constant soft buzzing floating throughout the maze, hundreds and hundreds of waspers.  
The corridor was dark with tiny spots darting about.  
The pathway splitting off to the left was eerily empty, not even one of those gooey metal insects to be seen but turn right and the path was swarming.

"There another way to the number? We can't go through that!" Newt says quietly trying not to draw attention

"No" Minho whispers looking his friend in the eyes, an ounce of worry on the keeper's features which made my stomach sink. If Minho's worried then I'm defiantly worried!

"Lex, what was it you said before, about being malicious?" Minho asks like he's so close to remembering what it was I told him that day all those months ago at the lake.

"No!" I say sternly.  
He's referring to me saying I wasn't out to get the wasp so it shouldn't be out to get me. Is he seriously going to suggest we walk through the mist of wasps?  
Minho tilts his head like it's as good an idea as any.

"That's suicide Minho!" I snap being careful not to raise my voice too high

"What is?" Sonya asks

"He wants us to go through it!"

"Do you have a bloody screw loose?" Newt questions alarmed

"It's like Lexi said, if we don't harm them then they won't feel the need to sting us" Though Minho didn't sound all that convinced as he said it to us, causing me to scoff

"There are hundreds of them Minho! let's just head back and think about this" I say

"But what if this keeps happening? What if it comes to the day we're leaving and we run into a hallway filled with waspers?" He asks argumentatively and Newt sighs, sounding frustrated

"Then we will figure it out then," Sonya says

"Just let me test the theory" he suggests lightly

"You seriously want to walk into that swarm of needle-wielding tiny robots?" Sonya questions  
Minho glances back down the hallway and shrugs

"I'll run as soon as they look ... Evil?" Minho suggests and I scoff a laugh

"And if you get stung?" Newt shoots

"Lexi's bought some serum, she always does!" Minho sounds almost proud but I think he's proud of his cockiness of knowing I'd have some than me myself. Jerk!

"I'm not dragging your stupid ass back!" Newt sighs and Minho smiles like he's won

"You really doing this?" I question the Korean. And I thought Thomas was the whacked one.

"I told you were all getting out of here this time. One of us has to do this, better now while there's a chance to figure out another option afterwards than last minute"

"As much as you have a point it's still ridiculous!" I mutter.  
I hated the thought of Minho walking into the mass of waspers.

"What if you get stung multiple times, it's never happened before, it's dangerous!" I state  
Minho shrugs

"Better me than all of us on the day of leaving," he says nonchalantly  
My lips part in shock yet I have nothing to say, thankfully Newt speaks for me

"Minho this is crazy, were turning around right now"

"Newt, you know I'm right man, I'll be fine, I ain't dead yet" he smiles, dimples and all and I have to fight back my unshed tears.

"Then I'm coming with you!" I choke out and then swallow the lump  
I hear Sonya swear under her breath and she looks to Newt as if asking him to stop us but Minho's speaking before Newt could even blink in response

"The hell? No way are you going in their!" He states in his authority tone that he likes to use on me.

"It's our rule, right? If one of us does something stupid the other does too, well this is stupid Minho!"

"You're both stupid!" Sonya says sounding anxious

"Just trust me, ok? I'm doing this for all of us, the first sign of danger I'll head back, preferably sprinting so just be ready to run" he smiles, trying to make a joke out of it but we're all too anxious and scared to find anything remotely humorous in this situation

"You're such a hypocrite Minho!" I say angrily and he eyes me questionably as the anger seeps through

"You tell me and Thomas not to play the hero yet you're doing exactly that now! Just stop!" I complain and I realize I'm not exactly keeping my voice low and we all look towards the waspers. Luckily they don't seem to care were only around the corner.  
Minho steps forward and places his hands on my shoulders and smiles

"Yeah but let's face it if it wasn't for you guys playing hero sometimes we wouldn't be here right now"  
I sigh annoyed at him and step away from his grip and he sighs

"Get the serum ready ok. I'll walk up to them, only take a few steps in if I can then come back" he says and then he disappears behind the sharp corner of the tall maze wall  
"Minho!" Newt whisper-shouts and I grit my teeth angrily as we all step into the walkway, watching as Minho steps slowly towards the waspers.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again guys for my lack of updating and thank you for those still sticking with me, I know it can mess things up having to wait months for a chapter because by then you've forgotten everything that's happened and gone on so sorry again. Anyway I love you guys and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, Akage x


	30. Chapter 30

It was silent between us as we watch the black mass of moving dots in the distance that had swallowed Minho. Sonya was chewing her nails and Newt hadn't taken his eyes off the spot Minho had disappeared through. I found myself pacing, the seconds passing like minutes.

Movement then catches my eyes and Minho's form comes running out of the wasps. I stand there in shock, expecting the waspers to follow him but they stay there, clumped together in the maze hall.

He comes to a stop in front of us and as his mouth opens he falls forward onto his knees. We all dive forward to catch him although he stayed planted on his knees

"Minho!" I say, holding his face in my hands as his eyes drooped.

"Syrum" he grits out and I swallow a lump as I drop the bag and open it up to search for the syringe

"How many stung you Minho?" Newt asks the Korean as he fought to stay conscious

"6, 7?" he mutters and Sonya gasps

"Newt, what do I do?" I ask as I pull out a syringe

"You're asking me!?" Newt asks as the blond holds Minho's shoulders, Minho looking too weak to stay kneeling up on his own

"Oh shuck" I mutter as I see two sting marks on his arm and one on his neck. I go with my gut and put the syring in a vein in his neck and hope I won't need one for each sting.

"Son, carry the bag!" I order as I turn my back to Minho and I look back at Newt

"Newt put him on my back!" I order

"Are you serious?" Newt questions

"I don't have a bad ankle, I'll carry him for as long as I can," I say looking at Minho to see he was now passed out, Newt having to hold him up. I close my eyes and look away, down the corridor we came from

"Newt!" I order impatiently and he helps get Minho onto my back and Sonya puts her arms out to steady me as I slowly stand

"Shuck he's heavy" I mutter and I grit my teeth and take each step slow and steady, scared to drop him.

"I can't believe he did that!" Sonya mutters, staying behind me in case Minho slips off

"I can" Newt admits as he eyes me wearily, guilt in his brown eyes at me carrying him. I knew though that running plays havoc with Newts leg and I didn't want him hurting himself, I could push through, at least most way.

 

When we pass the threshold of the Glade I help Newt lower Minho carefully onto the grass and Sonya runs for the medhut so Jackson could bring the DIY gurney so we could carry Minho there.

I sit up against the wall next to Minho and move his head to lean it on my shoulder and I stroked his cheek before putting my hand onto his neck to check for a pulse, it was weak but it was there.

"You're an idiot Minho! A bloody idiot!" I say, a tear falling down my cheek

"You can tell him that when he wakes up!" Newt says from the other side of the keeper and I look over at him, his eyes determined.

I laugh and wipe my tear

"If he wakes up" I mutter looking back to Minho

"He will, he's a fighter!"

 

"What the hell happened?" Jackson asks as he drops to his knees in front of us to place down the gurney. I clamber onto my knees to help him put Minho on and let Newt explain what he did

"Does he have a death wish! jesus, how many syringes did you use?" Jax asks as he and Newt lift the gurney between them.

"One, I didn't know if I should use more" I admit, the panic evident in my voice

"Jax, should I have used more?" I question when he says nothing

"I ... I don't know Lex" He admits and another tear falls as I keep my eyes on Minho and his chest, scared he'd stop breathing any second.

 

I was in a panic as Jax and Newt place Minho onto a bed, Thomas and the others swarming inside to ask what happened and if Minho's ok. I just stay at Miho's side as Jax looks him over, ripping his shirt off to check for more bites, finding another on his side. My vision blurs as my tears continue to fall and suddenly I'm being shaken by Thomas

"Hey, Minho needs you, come on" he coaxes and I nod, he's right, I need to stay focused and help Jax.

Jax was currently checking out all of his sting marks, his veins around them getting darker, the rest of us stood around his bed in a panic, worried that he wouldn't wake up from this. I push past Aris and Harriet and go for Sonya who still held my bag and I take out the other two syringes, putting them on the bedside table.

"Lexi, what are you doing?" Jax asks as I go for the others

"How many times has he been stung?" I ask him

"6" Jax answers and I smile at Minho overexaggerating and I grab 2 more syringes and put them with the other two

"This stuff works by killing the venom right, or whatever it is that these fuckers put into our blood that makes us sleep and dream, I doubt this stuff can kill him as long as we're sensible, right and I also doubt 1 syringe serum is enough to kill 6 doses of their venom so, I think we need to give him more"

Ja sighs and looks around the room as I do too, no one knew what to say or to suggest, who knew if my thoughts were correct or not but I knew there was a better chance of Minho waking up with more serum and not less.

When Jax's eyes return to mine I raise my brows in question and he nods and we both pick up a syringe each, making sure there's no air and we inject them into the sting wounds.

Once done I place my fingers on his wrist and I don't dare take it away, making sure I can feel his pulse at all times.

 

"We need to discuss what happened in the maze today," Newt says some minutes later and I finally pull my eyes away from Minho to look at him.

"We need to kill the nests!" Sonya says, her eyes still on Minho

"No," Thomas says from beside Newt "They'll just keep making more!" he admits and a silence takes over the hut again as we know Thomas is right.

"There's no other way around, we had to go through the waspers as they blocked the way we needed to go" I admit so other gladers in the room know.

"We have to find a way through without getting stung!" Newt says as he crosses his arms and leans up a pillar in the room

"How though?" Fry asks

"I don't know yet" Newt admits and Sonya sighs

"The mosquito nets!" She admits and all eyes are on the blond

"We were using them when they first arrived" She pointers

"They don't work against the wasps" Jax points out and all the faces that held a little hope now drop

"There has to be something!" Thomas mutters, more to himself

"All I can think of is fire, they hated that stuff," Harriet says and Thomas looks at her, his eyes widening like he has an idea.

 

"Do you think their plan will work?" Jax asks as he passes me one of his teas an hour later. There were only the two of us in here now, minus Minho who was still passed out on the bed.

"I don't know, I hope so!" I say

"I take it I can't stop you going in there tomorrow to help them?" He asks with a raised brow but I take him by surprise and shake my head

"I'm staying right here!" I admit as I feel Minho's heartbeat in my fingertips, slow but steady. Jax nods and it goes silent again as we watch our only patient.

 

Jax had lit the lights and had bought our dinners in for us to eat when I notice the lack in movement from Minho. I feel the inside panic and stare at his chest, determined my eyes are playing tricks on me a Icould still feel a heart beat on my finger.

"Jax!" I warn, getting his attention. He looks at me and then to Minho

"Is he breathing?" I ask and Jax suddenly kicks into action, going from relaxed to medic instantly.

His cup is placed down and his ear is to Minho's mouth as his hand presses lightly on his chest.

"Barely, Lexi, grab me the bag!"

I rush towards the paper bags we had never found a use for other than throwing used syringes in and pass it to Jax who places it over Minho's mouth.

Minho suddenly jolts so I tighten my hand around his wrist and look to Jax who holds his chest harder to keep him down as he starts to thrash, the thrashing stops and suddenly he's shaking and grunting as his heartbeat picks up.

"His hearts going crazy!" I exclaim as he continues to shake beneath us both.

It lasts no longer than a minute and me and Jax look at each other before looking back to Minho. His breathing is still shallow and I feel his pulse on his wrist and feel it slow down back to a steady beat and then his eyes open, wide and scared.

"Minho, you're ok, you're in the med hut!"

His breathing stays weak though he tries to weakly pry Jax's hand away that's holding the bag to his mouth.

Jax moves away from him and feels his heartbeat at his neck himself.

"Can you hear me Minho?" Jax asks

Minho opens his mouth to speak then grouts out a painful moan as he holds his head with both hands, pulling away from my touch.

"How do you feel Min?" Jax asks

Minho sighs and opens his eyes, dropping his hands

"Like klunk" he grouts out weakly, his voice quiet and shallow

"My heads thumping, what happened why am I here?" he asks looking at us both confused

"You not remember?" I ask as Jackson gets up to get a glass of water for Min and some painkillers

"I ... I remember the maze" He says

I eye him wearily, hoping he'd tell me more of what he remembered

"Then what?" Jax prompts from the keeper as he hands him a glass of water.

Minho's hands are shaky as he takes the glass, the liquid too heavy for him and it drops to his knee. I hold it upright in time for it not to spill over the rim of the glass and he looks at his hands wearily

"Here," I say and I take the glass and allow him to take a few sips

"Oh man" he mutters and Jax hands me the painkillers

"Here," I say giving Minho the pills and he puts them slowly into his mouth with weak movements.

I help him swallow back the rest of his drink with the tablets and give him a minute to get his thoughts together.

"I don't even know how you're awake!" Jax admits to Minho and I try not to think about that.

We were expecting him to be asleep for days, not just a few hours.

I put the empty glass on the unit and watch Minho wearily as he closes his eyes

"I walked into the waspers didn't I?" Minho asks and I find myself smiling, glad he remembered.

"Yes, and you're never doing it again!" Jax says and it's a relief to hear Minho laugh, or try to anyway, it seemed anything he did took a lot of effort, even just lying there with his eyes closed he looked weak.

"Try to stay awake a little longer Minho, your heartbeats low" I warn and Minho cracks his eyes open to look at me

"I ain't going anywhere," he says cockily and closes his eyes

"Minho, you've just had some sort of fit!" I say as I stand up

"We don't have any decent equipment here to know exactly what's wrong with you. I am not losing you so you better damn stay awake!" I order angrily and Jax puts his hand out towards me to calm me down

Minho's eyes open again and this time he's looking at me wearily

"A fit?" he questions, his cocky exterior now gone

"Yes" Jax answers and Min frowns

"Well shit!" he mutters and I sigh and sit back down

"How are you feeling Miho, tell me everything! can you see ok? can you remember everything?" I ask and Minho sighs

"I, yeah I'm fine Lexi, really, just got a headache and I feel like I could sleep the week away, come here!" His weak hands trying to pull at me surprise me and I find myself wrapped in his arms, hugging the man scared to let go as I cry into his chest

"I was so fucking worried Minho, don't do something so ruthless ever again!" I order and he brings his hand up to my head to hold me against him

"I'm sorry" he whispers

 

 

I stand from my seat beside Minho as Thomas, Newt, Harriet, Sonya, Fry and Gally enter the med hut the next day, smelling of smoke.

"How'd it go?" I ask

"Well, it worked in chasing them away, killed a good number of the bastard too!" Newt says with a smile and I look at Thomas grateful he had his idea of moltoving the waspers

"So we can get through?" Jax asks and Newt nods

"We're gonna need a lot more bottles, those fuckers down below had better come through for us" Gally says

"We have a lot of alcohol to make" newt admits

"No more parties huh" Thomas adds and no one seems to care

"So, how is he?2 Newt asks nodding towards the keeper fast asleep and I smile wide, giving them their answer

"He's ok?" Thomas asks running up to the side of his bed

"Yeah, he's just sleeping," I say

"Heavily! it's left him weak but he woke up last night" Jackson says

"Wait, last night?" Newt asks now limping over, Sonya close behind.

"He had a fit but woke up soon after, it's definitely not safe getting stung by that many waspers, I just hope there's no long-term damage" I admit aloud and Sonya's hand falls to my shoulder and she gives me a small smile that I reluctantly return.

"Minho's a fighter!" Thomas says

"Yeah, I've heard that before," I say as I stare down at him.


	31. Chapter 31

I watch with worry as Minho plops himself onto his own bed a couple day later and I don't have time to wipe the worry off my face as he looks up at me and sighs

"I'm not made of glass Lex" he says

"I know I just.." I sigh and Minho puts his hand out and I take it, his grip firm on my hand, his strength returning to him slowly and he puls me onto the bed to sit beside him.

"I'm having a week off aren't I, I'll be back to normal by then" he admits and I only hope he's right

"So we get a week to cuddle up in bed together," he says, his eyebrows dancing, causing me to laugh

"I have work to do" I admit and he frowns

"Jax can manage alone, you don't even have any patients"

"You mean other than you!" I remind

"I'm not in the medhut!" he counters

"Doesn't mean you're not a patient, I'm here to keep an eye on you" I remind him and he gives me a dirty smile as if accusing that of being a cover for my real reasons

"I am" I laugh and he strokes the hair on my head as he smiles at me

"Sure"

I scoff and look into his eyes, so full of life, unlike they were only two days ago.

"We learnt the hard way that you're a bad patient so we thought it'd be best to move you to your own room"

"More like Jax doesn't like me being a patient" Minho counters and I remember back to the near fight they had in the med hut and how Min and Jax couldn't go half a day without getting at each other's throats

"No, Jax just doesn't like you full stop" I admit smiling and Minho scoffs

"Yeah, for no reason!"

"He has his reasons" I admit, still just staring into his eyes

"And what are those?" he asks as his thumb still strokes my hair

"You're Minho!" I answer and he laughs and finally, he captures my mouth with his own and I mould into his side.

I pull away suddenly, remembering I have news.

"Brett, Andy and Thomas are all running today with Harrie" I beam

"Andy? he's running again?" Minho asks, no doubt remembering how he saved Minho's life by taking the hit from the griever for him. We were all so worried but he was determined not to let that scare him away from finding a way out of here and helping us.

"Looks like you're not the only fighter, you can rest easy Minho, you're not alone" I state and he smiles, holding me tight as he falls back on his bed

"I know" he assures me and kisses me again, this time I don't pull back and we stay in each other's arms just enjoying our time together kissing like we did the first night we got together.

That was until Minho started to deepen the kiss and rolled on top of me

"Ah ah ah, doctors orders are to not do anything strenuous!" I say

Minho ignores me and kisses my neck instead

"Minho!" I shout laugh

"Ugh fine" he huffs and climbs off of me

"So, what number are we on now?2 he asks me

"96 I think" I admit and he nods

"Gally finished building the first gate on the west side, it's still standing and it looks solid enough, for wood. They're going to start the second one today, they're prob working on it now actually" I admit

"They're made of wood right?" he asks and I nod

"They're not going to hold!" Minho points out and I sigh

"They'll at least hold the lighters out in the day" I admit and he nods

"Besides, we don't even know if the Grievers are gonna come out like they did last time, hopefully, they have something else in store for us, something easier to kill"

"Don't hold your breath, Lex, we need to be ready for anything. Where's Newt?" he asks me suddenly

"I don't know, the garden would be my guess, why?" I ask as he stands

"I want to know what was discussed at the gathering I missed, plus doctors orders or not I am not staying in bed all day!"

I sigh and stand, following Minho outside the med hut and leave Minho to it, knowing he's in safe hands with Newt and I go and find Brenda to help her make arrows. Minho would know where I am if he needs me.  
At dinner, I sit between Tyler and Minho with Newt and Sonia opposite us.

"Do you think the builders can finish 3 more gates in 100 days?" Tyler asks us all as he looks over at the builders, eating by the gate determined not to waste any time. They may have their complaints about Gally but he was a survivor and he was determined to get these gates finished.

"Hopefully" Newt answers for him

"He might not have the 96 days" Minho admits and we all look at him curiously

"The green number could be tomorrow, and we don't know what'll happen after we find out that last green number to get out of here, they could send the grievers in the day after" Minho shrugs

It's silent for a while as we let that sink in. Minho was right, the day of us getting out of here was fast approaching and although it's the day we were all waiting for it was also the day we were all dreading. Who knew if any of us would make it out of here alive or what would happen next.

 

"So how are we ammo wise?" I ask Brenda as I start crafting my third arrow of the day as I was back with her after dinner

"We've got a good stockpile, I've had Tyler and Chris helping me out you know" She smirks and I meet her eyes

"Seriously?" I ask her and she nods

"Yeah, they're not bad either, I had them fixing up broken arrows first, just so if they bugger them up it's not a waste of good wood ya know," She says and I find myself laughing and look over the Glade, everybody working or training. I look to the open gates straight ahead, knowing the runners would be finding the number within the hour then be on their way back and I look to where we had killed the last Lighter that braved entering, some of it's yellow goo still staining the grass and I gasp as a thought pops into my mind.

"Lexi!" Brenda calls as I stand up, dropping the wood and carving tools I was holding

"Ill be back" I shout and I run across the expanse to get to our group B leader.

 

"Newt!" I gasp, coming to a stop in front of him, Newt holding his hands out to steady me as I ran over to him. I catch my breath and Newt looks from the direction I an from

"What is it?" he asks and I stand straight and take another deep breath.

"I've just had a brilliant idea, and I want your opinion on it," I say with a huge smile, causing Newt's light brows to raise.

I stand in the Council Hall where our gatherings take place waiting for the runners to return.

Minho was beside me, Newt sat on one of the chairs with Sonya by his side and Aris and Fry stood near the door.

"They're coming" Fry announces and they come over to me and Minho as we wait for them to get here.

"Eager to hear how it went?" Harriet asks, being the first to enter, Brett close behind and Andy and Thomas behind them.

"We're just hoping you didn't kill them all" Newt says causing them all to look at us like we're whacked.

 

"Wait, let me get this straight, you want to capture them?" Brett asks, his arm folded as he stood beside my tough leader

"You've got to admit it's a bit weird considering we left on a mission to kill them all this morning," Harriet says

"I don't get it," Thomas says "Why capture them when we can kill them?" He asks

"Yeah," Andy says from his seat in a chair. "We killed a lot and the rest flew away, Thomas' plan to set them on fire worked!" 

"Actually it was my idea," Harriet says, giving Thomas a smile which he returns through a scoff

"Because Lexi has a theory and we need waspers to see if it works" Minho starts to explain

"What theory?" Thomas asks

"Well," Newt says, standing up straighter "You know how we get stung and we just sleep," Newt says, most people caught on from that, Thomas looking wide-eyed at me and Harriet wishing she had thought of it first.

"Genious" She mutters and I smile at her

"But, we might need a lot more than what just one wasper can provide us to put a Griever or Lighter to sleep" Newt admits

"So how on earth are we going to capture them?" Andy asks

"Well, that' why we're holding this gathering, to brainstorm" I admit

"Well they ain't exactly alive so I'm guessing luring them with food is out of the option?" Fry suggests

"And they attack randomly so no glader bait," Harriet says causing me to scoff a laugh

"Could the builders not build some sort of trap, like a cage?" Aris asks

"It's an option" newt admits

"They're busy with the gates" Sonya admits and Minho sighs

"Then screw the builders, we can build something surely!" Minho offers

"Even if we do catch some then what?" Fry asks "we can't just let them out in here, they'll sting us all"

"How long do you think it'd take for their batteries to die?" Harriet asks

No one answered that question

"Their batteries are tiny" I admit remembering when I pulled it out of the one I caught "I can't see them lasting more than a couple of days" I shrug

"So we build a big ass box, go to the maze, somehow trap them in it and drag them back here and wait for them to die," Aris asks, putting it into perspective

"Cause I can see this going well," Brett says

"Well, anyone got any better ideas?" Newt asks

Fry shakes his head obviously thinking this plan is whacked, and honestly, it as. But, if we could get that liquid the waspers like to sting us with it gives us a much bigger chance at survival.

(This had better bloody work)

 

 

Minho leans over the side of his mattress to turn his lamp off and our room gets swallowed in darkness.

He turns so he's facing me and I feel his hand come to my cheek, stroking at the flyaway hairs that have fallen on my face to push them aside.

"You ok?" I ask him as I put my hand that isn't being used as Minho's pillow onto his hip.

"Yeah" he hums lightly and I can hear the smile more than see it.

"What is it?" I ask wanting to know why he was looking at me and not just going to sleep

"I'm just proud of ya stick, we have a real shot at getting out now and it' all thanks to you!"

"We always had a shot Minho, if we survived it once we can survive it again"

"Yeah but what are the odds, really?" he asks and I sigh

"Were getting out of here, you, me, our friends. And when we do we'll build a life somewhere else, somewhere far away from the flare, where WCKD can't find us!" I tell him, needing him to believe me

He sighs happily and I feel his lips on my forehead and I close my eyes

"Mmm, you're one amazing woman Lexi!" He says and I smile as he leans down to kiss me.

"I love you," he says as his thumb strokes my cheek when he leans back to peer down at me

"I love you too," I say and this time it's my lips that seek out Minho's in the dark and slowly he climbs on top of me and between my legs.

I cart my fingers through his hair as I open my thighs for him, the keeper getting comfortable between them as his other hand travels down my stomach and to my bare thigh and to the back of my knee where he pulls on it, making me bend my legs.

I pant through our heated kiss and hold him close as he pushes against me, feeling him hard against my stomach, just our underwear between us.

His fingers get to work, moving aside the material in his way and his fingers dip inside. My body jolts at the pleasurable intrusion and Minho's breaths grow shorter, more desperate.

I buckle against his hand as his fingers rock inside of me. I pull away from the kiss and moan into his neck, Minho panting into my hair as I writhe underneath him.

His fingers grow faster and I grip the back of his neck as I try not to moan out loud for the other gladers to hear me.

"Min" I whimper causing the man to lean back so he could look down at me

I don't need to say anymore, he knew I was impatient.

His fingers leave me and the thick cloud of lust leaves my mind, causing me to be able to think straight again. His hand goes to his boxers, freeing himself and he gets comfortable on top of me again as I feel something large and hot on my pelvis.

Minho' kissing me then, this wasn't hot and desperate, it was slow and attentive, letting me know he loves me. I smile as he breaks away and then my mouth opens in a silent moan as he pushes himself inside of me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
